







.£yAJf- , C " S" 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ 









AN 



OUTCRY 



FROM THE 



BROKEN ¥ALLS OF ZION 



BY 



MRS. ANN COPCUTT 



'' Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." — Rev. iii 20. 21. 



n 



NEW YORK; 



JOHN COPCUTT, 172 DUANE STREET. 



1844. 






pi 5- 





Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1844, 

BY MRS. ANN COPCUTT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 

for the Southern District of New York. 



.1 ^ 



/ 






\* 



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TO THE 
POOR, THE NEEDY, THE TRIED, THE TEMPTED, 
AND THE OUTCASTS OF 
THE SPOUSE OF CHRIST, * 

WHO ARE SCATTERED ABROAD IN 

NEW YORK, THE UNITED STATES, GREAT BRITAIN, 

AND ELSEWHERE, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY THEIR SISTER IN TRIBULATION. 

AND IN THE 

KINGDOM AND PATIENCE OF JESUS CHRIST, 

A. C. 



PREFACE. 



Go, my Little Book, in the name of the Lord of hosts, my 
God and King, and find a passage to the hearts of his re- 
deemed ones ; to those who do in reality pray in faith at the 
sight of that which the enemy has done in the Sanctuary. 

Go, my Little Book, and discover those who do indeed feel 
and mourn for the wickedness of these times. I do not send 
thee to those who say, " We see," and are not affected by the 
sight ; but to such as do grieve for the same, and pour out 
their souls unto God in prayer on account of it. 

Go, my Little Book, and find one Elijah, who, against all 
the prophets of Baal, prayed unto the God of Israel, who 
heard his voice, and sent his own fire to consume the sacri- 
fice. 

Go, and see if thou canst find one Nehemiah, who dared 
to mourn for the desolation of the City of God, in the presence 
of a great king. He sat down, and wept and mourned 
certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of Hea- 
ven, confessing his own sins, and the sins of his fathers, and 
the sins of his countrymen ; for he knew that these calamities 
had come upon them for their many and grievous sins. His 
prayer prevailed, — it was the prayer of faith. 

Go, my Little Book, and see if thou canst find one Job, 



VI PREFACE. 

whose prayer of faith rose to God through all his calamities, 
notwithstanding all the ills that befell him. 

Go, and find one Jeremiah, who wished " his head was 
waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep 
day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people." — 
Who cried out, '•' O daughter of my people, gird thee with 
sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes : make thee mourning, 
as for an only son." God had set Jeremiah as a tower and 
a fortress, that he might know and try their ways ; and he 
found they w^ere " grievous revolters, walking with slanders ; 
they were brass and iron ; they were all corrupters." At the 
sight of these evils he cried out, " O that I had in the wilder- 
ness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave 
my people, and go from them ! for they be all adulterers, an 
assembly of treacherous men." 

Go, my Little Book, and discover one Daniel, who was 
carried into literal Babylon ; and when there, in the palace 
of a heathen king, lived upon pulse because he would not 
be defiled. He also fasted, and mourned, and lay in sack- 
cloth and ashes, because of the desolation of the City of God. 
At another time, he " ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh 
nor wine into his mouth," because of all the evils that had come 
upon the Jews, his countrymen. 

Go, my Little Book, and see if thou canst find one Simeon, 
who could not die in peace until he had seen the Lord's 
Christ. — Or one Anna, who also waited for the Lord, and 
gave thanks for him, and who " had not departed from the 
Temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night 
and day." Or see if thou canst find any like the Apostles, 
who mourned and wept at the supposed loss of their Lord, 
who was absent but three days in the grave. 

Go, my Little Book, and find those who are this day in 
the midst of mystical Babylon ; — who wander from moun- 
tain to mountain, and from hill to hill, and can find no pas- 
tujTQ for their souls, because of the present system which is 



PREFACE. Vll 

carried on by her who is not the Spouse of Christ, but an 
harlot ; and because of the terrible famine of the pure Word 
of God in the congregations. If they do indeed seek 
Christ in singleness of heart, then join thyself unto them, and 
say, Separate yourselves from the congregations of the har- 
lot, or false church, and unite yourselves together in one 
heart, one soul, and one judgment ; and pray unto the Bride- 
groom of your souls, to grant unto you that you may pray in 
faith for your Mother, the Spouse of Christ, who is at this day 
bound under oppression, affliction, and iron ; but you cannot 
know in what way she is bound, except by prayer. Do you 
wish to see the Spouse of Christ liberated ? Then pray in 
union. Do you wish to see the enlargement of the Spouse 
of Christ? Then pray in the unity of the Spirit. Do you 
wish to see the advancement of the Spouse of Christ ? Then 
pray in the union, communion, and fellowship of the Spirit, 
And may God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
Ghost, give you a blessing, and spread forth the honor of his 
name, and make his praise glorious in the earth. 

Now, my Little Book, I give thee this warning : — Do not 
join thyself unto those who say that the Spouse of Christ 
has nothing to do, and that the Bridegroom has done all for 
her, if they do not give a just explanation, as Christ the 
Lord did, and as the Apostles, Luther, and all that are taught 
of God do. Shun them when thou hast given them warning 
of their state, if they repent not. These people have fine 
tongues, and will deceive with their sophistry, if it were pos- 
sible, the very elect. At one time they will show themselves 
to be the most humble of mortals, if we could believe their 
words ; — at another time, they are seen to be as proud as 
Lucifer. If thou inquire of them whether they walk by the 
Spiritandthe Word, they will immediately manifest their anger, 
and lay all the blame upon God, and say. How can we, 
unless we are moved by the Holy One ? We go whereso- 
ever we find occasion, and whensoever we please, &c. If 



VIU PREFACE. 

thou press them with such inquiries, they will fly in thy 
face, and study their own time to be revenged ; and this is 
when they mount up into their high places. From such turn 
away, and commit thy cause to him who judgeth righteously ; 
and may the Most High give thee favor in the sight of all 
those who love him, and seek the welfare of Zion ! Amen. 

A. C. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

To Mr. W. W. S., 11 

To the Same, 16 

To the Editor of the Telescope, 25 

To my Family, who with Myself are under the Yoke and 

Bondage of Mr. H., 30 

To Mr. , 33 

To my Family, 35 

To Mrs. R , 40 

To Mr. C n, 47 

To Mr. , 59 

To the Same, . 69 

To the Same, 79 

To the Same, 87 

ToJ. L , 93 

ToMr. B , 96 

To my Family and the Branches of the Spouse of Christ, 99 
To my Family, and to the Church of Christ scattered 

abroad in the City of New York and elsewhere, greeting, 111 

To the Same, 119 

ToJ. C , . . . 140 

To Mr. * * * * 148 

To J. C — -, on Music, 159 

To the Same, on Insurance, 168 



AN OUTCRY 



FROM THE 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 



New York, 1834. 
To Mr. W. W, S. 

Sir,— 

I am desirous to let you know the reason why I did 
not proceed with my writings, which you may think 
strange ; but I assure you a very dark cloud came over 
me, out of which I could by no means extricate my- 
self. Under this cloud I have remained, until recently 
my most blessed Lord dispersed it, and has caused the 
true light to shine upon my path. I therefore take my 
pen in hand once more. 

I must needs say that from the beginning of my hear- 
ing you, I had my doubts whether you had experienced 
those truths which you preached ; but I hoped the 
best, and thought time would explain all things. To 
add to my difficulties, I was assaulted on the right 
hand and on the left, by those who had heard and 
known your principles. However, I was determined 
not to heed any of them, but to hear for myself, because 
I do know the muddy heads of those who now-a-days 
follow the Apostate Protestant Church, and I was de- 
termined to pass no judgment until my understanding 
should become better informed by hearing for myself 



12 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

All this time I have prayed earnestly unto God for his 
wise direction. 

In this age of Apostasy, if Christians are not well 
aware of the vigilance of the devil, and the craft and 
subtlety of designing men, it is probable they will make 
shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, or get into a 
certain deadness and earthly mindedness, out of which 
they cannot extricate themselves. 

NoWj'sir, I have heard from your own mouth those 
things which were told me from the beginning, con- 
cerning your principles, and which you utterly denied 
to us when we taxed you with them. The truth is, it 
deeply concerns us to know them. The Lord suffered 
us to be blinded for a time, because he knew our sore 
longing after the house of God, and his ordinances ; the 
loss of which is, and has been a great grief of heart un- 
to me. I assure you it is with great difficulty that I 
can say, Let God's will be done in this matter. I love 
your soul as much as if you were my own son, and I 
am grieved for you, that a man so young, with talents 
that might be turned to the advantage of the Church 
of the living God, should throw them all away in the 
service of God's enemy. 

Since that of which I have already informed you, I 
have had no communication with your opposers, neither 
have I gone gossiping up and down to defame you ; 
but, according to the word of God, I have made known 
this matter between yourself and me alone. If you 
choose to reply, I pray you let it be done by writing, 
as I shall carefully avoid all verbal arguments which 
engender strife ; for where strife and contention are, 
there Christ is not. In the strength of Christ I will 
answer you. If you reply not, I shall then act as God 
shall direct me, and my family shall do as they please. 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 13 

Concerning those other things which I wrote before, 
I know that the true Church is an " army with ban- 
ners," and where two or three of them are gathered to- 
gether in the name of Christ, he will hear their prayers 
and answer them in due time. But of what avail are 
the prayers of a false church, either to themselves or to 
others ? There is but one true faith, and for men to 
climb up into the ministry of their own head, without 
being commissioned of God, is not faith, but presump- 
tion. Then how could I conscientiously commit my- 
self to one whose faith I doubted ? If you have done 
away with all creeds, as you say, you have substituted 
your own dogmas as infallible articles of faith. — If the 
testimonies of men of great experience are not to be re- 
ceived, neither are yours ; for I am persuaded you have 
not yet experienced the new birth. Indeed, sir, I should 
rejoice if you could prove the contrary. Beware in 
time, lest you wrest the Scriptures to your own destruc- 
tion ; and be assured that before you are an able min- 
ister of the New Testament, God will plunge you into 
the furnace; — not of outward straits and difficulties 
only, but of inward fiery trials, and then you will un- 
derstand what it is to run into the ministry uncom- 
missioned of God. It is written — " If the root be holy, 
so are the branches." If I offer my other cheek to the 
smiters, while I am not rooted in Christ, what doth it 
profit ? There are some who receive the word with 
joy, but because they have no root they wither away. 
It is impossible to be built up in Christ unless we are 
first rooted in him; but this is not done by speculating 
in the Scriptures nor by philosophical notions. 

I perceive you are unacquainted with the depths of 
Satan, and how should it be otherwise, unless you had 
experienced them ? The endless mazes, labyrinths, and 

2 



14 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

wars which the Church of God experiences, you can- 
not touch. I will not say you are not called to the 
ministry, but this I will say, you have not yet proved 
your calling to be of God. I pray you will not take 
this letter amiss ; indeed it springs from love to your 
soul. I wish you to take the same liberty, and tell me, 
if you think me wrong in any thing which I have 
written ; for if you and others do not search me, Christ 
will do it to the very root of the heart. — All glory to 
his name for his searching power ! 

You are indignant at the word impression ; by 
what words shall I convey my ideas ? I will take the 
word application, and try if that will please you any 
better. You do not absolutely deny that the Holy 
Ghost ever applies the word of God with power, in- 
stancing the case of Peter as an exception, when he 
was warned by his Lord, that Satan desired to have 
him that he might sift him as wheat. 

It was hearing you preach of union and communion 
with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which seemed 
to unite my heart with you at the first. Were you only 
ill jest ? Can I have communion and fellowship with 
Christ, if he by the Spirit never applies his word wilh 
power to my soul ? If you believe in the communion 
of saints, will you call that communion when one party 
speaks, and the other is silent ? To commune, is to 
talk or discourse together. Can I call that communion 
with God, when he does not communicate his word to 
me? Does he leave me always to cry, and never an- 
swer me? I cannot run to the Scriptures, and take a 
promise suitable to my case when I please. The pro- 
mises are all good — they are yea and amen to the chil- 
dren of grace ; but they must be applied by the power 
of the Spirit, before T can take hold of them, What if 



;^ 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 15 

the devil imitates the work of God in the soul, must 
we throw away the wheat with the chaff? God for- 
bid : it is the work of God's ministers to separate the 
chaff from the wheat ; — to take the precious from the 
vile ; — to make distinctions as far as they are able, be- 
tween the Holy Spirit's work in the soul and that of 
Satan. 

How often have I heard you say that the gospel is 
the same now as it was in the beginning ; and yet you 
deny in effect the kingly oflice of Christ, who is the 
Head and Guide of his church. Have you attentively 
read the Acts of the Apostles, and seen how they were 
led by the immediate power of the Spirit ? And #ie 
experience of the saints in all ages, shows that they 
who are joined to the Lord, are not their own but the 
Lord's ; and therefore, they are under his rule and 
guidance, as much as a woman ought to be under the 
power and control of her husband, in all right things. 
God's ministers cannot conscientiously go from one 
city to another until the Lord go before them, or assure 
them of their calling. But the ministers of Satan can 
come and go when they please. 

I pray yoi!P, mark and consider these inconsistencies 
attentively, and may God in mercy give you under- 
standing according to his word. Listen to the voice 
of a worm, and when you are on your death-bed, you 
will have no cause to repent of hearkening to my coun- 
sel. I would advise you to preach no more against 
the professing church, until your understanding be 
more enlightened to see wherein her great deficiency 
lies. 

Your Soul's Well-wisher, 

A. C. 



16 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

New York, 1834. 
To the Same. 

Sir,— 

I am sorry you take my words in a wrong sense. I 
did not say that " the Lord showed me what your prin- 
ciples were ;" there are no such words in my letter. I 
never said that of you, nor of any other man, and I 
deny the charge. But I did say that " I found them 
out by prayer and observation ;" and whoever may 
make a mock of the grace of God in the soul, it is by 
the illuminating graces of the Spirit, that we discover 
m^y things. Yet it requires no more than knowledge 
in the head, to find out your erroneous doctrine, be- 
cause you proclaim it without fear in the pulpit. And 
let me tell you sir, if you wish to secure your audience 
you have need of a better memory. 

The enlightening of the mind, as well as the salva- 
tion of the soul, is the gift of God ; but in finding out 
erroneous men we must also exercise our senses, as I 
said before, with prayer and observation. I have souls 
for whom I care, and whose welfare I seek as it regards 
their teachers. If you think T have no «ight to give 
my private opinion in things which concern our ever- 
lasting welfare, the Word of God stands against you. 
I neither judge nor condemn you, nor do I behold the 
mote that may be in your eye as it respects uprightness 
of life. I think it my duty to bear with all the faults 
and infirmities of conduct in others, considering myself 
who am as much exposed to temptation as they ; yet I 
will not bear with one who docs his best endeavor to 
insinuate false doctrine, no, not for an hour. If we are 
to believe every corrupter of the Scriptures of truth 
because he may be upright in his life or moral deport- 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 17 

ment, then we need not trouble ourselves to search into 
his doctrine. But contrary to this is the command of 
the Holy Ghost, that we must not receive such into our 
houses, nor bid them God speed, lest we should be par- 
takers of their evil deeds. We are commanded to try 
the spirits, and how can we, except by prayer and ob- 
servation ? By our words our faith shall be justified 
before men, and by our words we shall be condemned. 
" Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak- 
eth ;" and the fruit of the lips is that by which we 
must judge of errors in doctrine. 

To what purpose do you preach that the saints have 
union, communion, and fellowship with God, and that 
religion is nothing, except the power of God attend it, 
when in the next instance you deny it altogether, and 
say, that a Christian's past experience is to be compared 
to the manna in the wilderness that bred worms and 
stank, and on that account must be thrown away? 
Contrary to this was the example of David, who re- 
joiced to look back upon his former experiences and de- 
liverances, which is evident in many parts of the Psalms; 
and Jacob too was glad to remember the promises which 
God made to him in the day of his distress. It is the 
devil's work to compare the stinking manna to the past 
experience of the saints ; he cannot endure that the 
experienced Christian should know that the more a soul 
is exercised in divine things, so much the more his 
lying lips will be detected, — his falsehood exposed, — 
and his kingdom liable to suffer. 

Will you who pretend to expose him in those false- 
hoods which he is now carrying on in the professing 
church, cry down Christian experience, and so take a part 
with the devil, and build upon his foundation, and say 
in effect, that there is no such thing as the Load's speak- 

2* 



18 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

ing home to the soul, and thus deny the kingly office of 
Christj — the Head and Guide of his Church, and com- 
pare those who speak of the Lord's dealings with them 
to Shakers, Hicksites, Southcotters, and all the worst 
sects you can find, on purpose to dash me out of coun- 
tenance ? But God forgive you and lead you into his 
truth if it be his will. 

It is one of the greatest of Satan's subtleties at this 
time, to cry down Christian experience, and to mock 
at the calamities of God's poor, in order to put them to 
silence, and drive them from their congregations. Yea, 
they will go out from such worshippers of themselves, 
if they have discernment to know their right hand from 
their left, in divine things. 

I have heard you assert in the pulpit, and also in pri- 
vate conversation, that " faith is God ;" and you give 
as a reason for this assertion that " where faith is, 
there God is." You make no distinction between God 
and his gifts. If the leading grace of the Spirit is God, 
the attendant graces must be Gods likewise, as love, 
joy, peace, long suffering, (fee. ifcc. My good sir, this 
is a dangerous doctrine to utter; — it is not "sound speech 
which cannot be condemned ;" — it is not according to 
God's Holy Word. If there is no distinction between 
God and his gifts, then why do you blame others for 
worshipping their supposed gifts or graces, as you say 
of the Shakers and many others? "Touch but their 
supposed gifts, or gods, and they are immediately of- 
fended." But why should you complain of them, when 
at the same time you say that "faith is God?" It is 
much nearer the truth to say as the Scriptures affirm, 
" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the 
evidence of things not seen." If we put faith in the 
place of Qirist who hath shed his blood to redeem his 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 19 

Church, then we must act faith upon our faith, which 
it is madness to suppose. Christ is the beginning, the 
end, and the continual feeder of faith. 

You tell me, because I warned you not to preach 
against the professing church, until your understanding 
were more enlightened, (and to be sure there is reason 
enough for me to say it,) to look into the gospel of 
Mark, Chap. 9. 38 — 42 ; I did so, and found nothing 
there that makes for your argument, nor against my- 
self I gave you a gentle caution, and that with sister- 
ly affection ; but you have taken it in evil part, and 
compare me to those disciples who forbade the man 
to cast out devils, because he followed not Christ as 
they [the disciples] did. I have not taken upon me to 
forbid you to preach, nor to cast out devils. Let me 
know you to cast out devils first, and then you will not 
want any one to forbid you to do it. I believe there is 
neither man nor woman in this place, but would rejoice 
to see the evil spirits subject unto you, and would thank 
God for his grace in you with their whole heart. But, 
sir, remember there is a great difference between er- 
roneous doctrine, and casting out devils in the name of 
Christ; the first is the devil's work, and the last is 
Christ's own work. We read of some in the day of* 
Judgment who will make this inquiry, " Have we not 
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out 
devils ?" &c. To whom Christ will answer, " I never 
knew you." It is one thing for a man to say he has 
cast out devils in Christ's name, and another thing to 
do it. The devil is not divided against himself, other- 
wise how could his kingdom stand ? The devils know 
Jesus, and Paul, and every faithful minister, but they 
will neither stir nor move for the ministers of Satan, 
unless they move in concert with them, or turn again 



20 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

Upon their exorcists, and drive tliem out naked and 
wounded. 

The forty-second verse of that same chapter, is that 
wherein our Lord cautions us to beware of offending: 
one of his little ones. Now, sir, according to your 
faith, Christ can have no little ones. You believe that 
God deals to every one the same degree of faith, whence 
it follows that you cannot be one of Christ's little ones, 
because you are always strong in your own faith. If to 
caution you against preaching erroneous doctrine, and to 
tell you the true reason why I could not hear you ; — if 
to deal with you as Christ will have us to deal one with 
another, when he says, " Thou shalt in any wise rebuke 
thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him ; — if this be 
to offend one of Christ's little ones, I have certainly 
done it, although you say that Christ has none of little 
faith. If you are offended, so v/as not David, the king 
of Israel, when he was smitten and reproved, Ps. cxli. 
5. God wills that we should deal faithfully one with 
another, that if possible we may pull each other out 
of the snare of the devil, for this is the end which God 
intends we should have in view when we admonish 
one another, if any one turn aside after Satan, that he 
vay be renewed again to repentance ; but if he will 
not hear, we are clean from his blood. It is most true 
that Christ has his little ones, though at certain seasons, 
their faith is too little for them to perceive that they have 
any. The very word " babes," implies little faith, and 
some of the Lord's people continue babes all their days ; 
therefore God's ministers are admonished to comfort the 
feeble minded, support the weak, (fee. 

How often do we hear of some persons who make 
bitter complaints, being borne down by the pre valency 
of unbelief and their inward corruption, and can in no 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 21 

wise lift up themselves, nor think that God will be fa- 
vorable to them any more. But these are the very- 
things of which men of your stamp make a mock and 
jestj as you did of the woman who complained of her 
wicked heart. I know that God deals to every man, 
(I mean to every member of his mystical body,) the 
exact measure of faith he wishes him to have ; there- 
fore, those members of his who are feeble and weak in 
faith are necessary; for God wills a union among his 
members, that they may be in care one for another. 
Thus Christ will have all his members in their proper 
places ; — he will not have the hand where the eye 
ought to be ; — nor the foot in the place of the hand ;- — 
nor the mouth in the place of the ear. I would advise 
you in future to be an ear, for that is more suitable, as 
you are not yet fitted to become a mouth for God unto 
the people ; and then, if you count yourself a member 
of Christ's mystical body, you will be in your proper 
place as a hearer. Kings and rulers are served by the 
field. The poor of the land are as serviceable to the 
states as the rich ; and so are the weak and feeble, as 
may be seen by David's two hundred men who were 
too weak to follow his army. He employed them to 
abide by the stuff", and made it a law ever after, that 
those who tarried by the stuif should share in the. 
spoils. 

You say well concerning love to the brethren ; for a 
man cannot love God, if he love not his brother; but 
the fruits of that love are seen in many ways that you 
have not named. In vain we talk of love to the breth- 
ren, if we see them turning aside after Satan, and do 
not admonish them, nor give them warning. I do not 

say that we OUffht to renrove or rp.hnkp! amr inrlisprimi- 



22 



AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



nately; but we ought to reprove those with whom we 
are more immediately concerned. 

We ought to lay ourselves open to reproof if it be 
done in the spirit of Christian meekness. I take God 
to record that I have written unto you in the spirit of 
meekness, having your welfare at heart, whatever you 
may say to the contrary, and however you may be of- 
fended, and indirectly or obliquely call me Southcotter, 
Hicksite, Shaker, and all the names you can think of; 
but these names I should glory in, if it were not filling 
up the measure of your iniquity, as Mr. Bunyan says in 
Lis own case. 

I am astonished at your being so angry, because I 
stand up for the Holy Spirit's work upon the soul. In 
vain you talk of love to the brethren, when you hold 
up Luther, and those who were the heads of the Re- 
formation, and expose them to contempt, and make 
them a spectacle to your hearers, for want of other mat- 
ter to bring against them. You would fain fly to the 
sins of their youth, or their state of darkness and igno- 
rance ; and because the Lord only enlightened them 
by slow degrees, you bring your accusations against 
them to expose them to contempt ; but I can assure 
you that God v/ill arise to vindicate his own honour, 
and the honour of his servants. 

Considering the state of darkness out of which the 
Reformation came, it would be wonderful indeed if they 
had been right in all points. They were not born strong 
men at the first ; — they were first, babes in grace- 
second, children — third, young men — and fourth, fa- 
thers in Christ. It would be well for us if we could 
imitate them in their love to God, and zeal for his hon- 
or, in these woful days. Now, the enemies of God 
have cast false fire into the Sanctuary, and have driven 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 23 

away Christ the Lord, and have raised to themselves 
vain imaginations and human inventions, which they 
worship instead of Christ. To be sure, those who 
were at the head of the Reformation were not without 
faults, but their faults ought to be covered with charity, 
for many of them shed their blood in defence of Christ's 
truth, and others stood ready so to do if the Lord had 
required it of them. 

You accuse me of setting light by the outward afflic- 
tions of God's children, but that is not true ; for I do 
know that all outward afflictions are very grievous ; 
however, I do say that outward straits are easier to be 
borne than a wounded spirit, as it is written : " A 
wounded spirit who can bear ?" I say now again, as I 
said before, that, unless you know something of the 
spirituality of the law of God upon your own con- 
science, which all God's children do know more or less, 
you are not yet fitted to be as God's mouth to the peo- 
ple. However you may boast of the Spirit, it is not 
the Spirit's work to turn and twist like an eel ; — to say 
one thing in the pulpit, and another out of it, so that 
your hearers can never know what you in reality 
mean. 

You positively affirm that " the gospel is tne same 
now as it was in the beginning, and that unknown 
tongues are yet in the Church of Christ ;" but when 
you are called upon to explain your meaning, you give 
an evasive answer, and leave us to guess that you be- 
lieve that the unknown tongues are amongst the Irving- 
ites, by your frequently speaking in favor of that 
people. 

And now for another aljpurdity : — you say " you must 
understand by my last letter, that God showed me that 
you had not the Spirit." Sir, any child of grace may 



24 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

see the folly of yonr understanding-. " Doth not the 
ear try words as the mouth tasteth meat ?" As well 
might we look for savory meat in the white of an egg, 
as to look for any thing like the truth in so great con- 
tradictions. It is truth wielded with spiritual weapons 
that puUeth down the strong holds of Satan. When 
we hear erroneous men in the pulpit, we must exercise 
our senses ; and more than this, if we lack wisdom in 
the cause of God and of Christ, we are commanded to 
ask it of him who giveth to all men liberally, and doth 
nof upbraid them with his gifts. 

I know the golden oil goes through the golden pipes, 
yet " A fountain doth not at the same time send forth 
sweet water and bitter." A renewed soul and a sancti- 
fied heart, is that by which God will work, and none 
shall be able to let it ; but such a heart sends not forth 
false doctrine and true. ^' A good tree yieldeth good 
fruit." Any man may boast that the golden oil goes 
through the golden pipes, while he uses his utmost skill 
to pervert the truth, and trample on the afflicted souls ; 
— to despise the servants of Christ, and bring hypocrites 
to presume upon the mercy of God, before their hearts 
are renewed by divine grace 

May the Lord keep me and mine from such abomi- 
nations ! 

Your Soul's Well-wisher. 

A. C. 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 25 

New York, 1826. 
To the Editor of the Telescope. 

Sir, 

Although I am no friend to newspapers, because I 
think the people of God may spend their time much 
more profitably than by wasting it in the trumpery with 
which they are mostly filled ; yet, happening promis- 
cuously to take hold of the Telescope, I thought there 
was something in it which met my own views respect- 
ing the present state of the Protestant Church. 

We took this paper, and I became a constant observer 
of its contents, because I do not like to take any thing 
for granted, nor to rely upon my own understanding 
respecting it, without a thorough examination. 

The state of the Protestant Church is no doubt 
truly alarming, and it must be seen and felt, at the 
present day, by every one who is endowed with the 
Spirit of Christ. The awful backsliding from the sim- 
plicity of Christ, and taking up with that which is not 
God, must be felt by every sensible soul. 

As there are a few things with which I am not satisfied, 
I beg your patience with me, while I ask you a few 
questions. Must not a reprover go before the reproved 
in knowledge, experience, sound doctrine, and true 
walking with God by his Spirit ? Must he not be 
born again, and be purged from his old sins by the pre- 
cious blood of Christ ? And after this, must he not 
have a commission from God to be a public reprover ? 
If I reprove ministers for preaching before they are 
sent of God, must I become a public reprover before I 
am sent, and so make myself a trangressor? He that 
tells another he must not steal, must he steal? Doth 
not he who judgeth another, and doeth the same th|ng$ 

3 



26 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

himself, make himself a transgressor ? Must I not 
have communion with God, before I can have a com- 
mission for public reproving, or for preaching? Who 
can know the mind of God but th.e Spirit of God ? " The 
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 
I know the law says : " Thou shalt in any wise rebuke 
thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Our Lord 
also says to the disciples : " Take heed to yourselves : 
if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ;" how- 
ever, this must be done between the two alone. But 
to be a public reprover, requires that God should arm 
me from head to foot,. and that I should be inwardly 
moved by the Holy Ghost ; otherwise, how can I 
speak the truth ? 

He that is sent of God, speaks the words of God. 
Moses, Samuel, and the Prophets and Apostles, all knew 
their commission. — God caused them to see and know 
their own vileness, and gave them true repentance and 
the pardon of their own sins, before he sent them to re- 
prove others. Jonah was rebellious; and therefore, 
God plunged him into the furnace, to teach him know- 
ledge. Moses, Jonah, and the Prophets were not 
priests to my knowledge ; yet they were armed and 
sent of God to be public reprovers, and when they 
were evil entreated by the Jews for righteousness' sake, 
they suffered patiently. But when a public reprover 
sends himself, and is drawn before the tribunal of man, 
he is only buffeted for his faults, whatever he rany 
think to the contrary. 

Judge ye : Will God honor that reprover who pre- 
tends to see the awful state of Zion. and who treats many 
things in away of burlesque, tending to raise laughter, 
or turn to ridicule ? Did Paul or the Apostles thus ? 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 27 

Are not they whose eyes God has opened, called rather 
to weep, and mourn, and gird themselves with sack- 
cloth ? Where is the Bridegroom of our souls ? Is he 
to be found in our assemblies ? Is he not cast out, and 
vanity put in his room ? And do not the people love 
to have it so ? Are not priests and people gone astray, 
and followinof the counsel of their own hearts? And 
the few who know better, bid them God speed, by their 
presence among them. It must be for a lamentation to 
the children of the bride-chamber, to see their Lord and 
Master's cause thus at stake; and to see that many 
who reprove, are caught in this snare of the fowler. 

Judge ye : Will God own or honor the labors of 
that man, how much soever he may pretend to have 
the cause of God at heart, who fights against the doc- 
trines of grace ; — who calls the doctrines of the gospel, 
an intolerant creed ; and the professors of it, murder- 
ous and cruel ? Admitting that John Calvin was all 
that you say, does that destroy the truth? I might as 
well say that, there is no truth at all in the gospel, be- 
cause David committed adultery and murder, — because 
Peter denied his Lord, and Judas sold him ; or because 
Ananias and Sapphira spoke lies in his name. It is 
not those who profess to believe in the doctrines of 
grace, that God will own ; but those who live in the 
spirit and power of them. How can they who deny 
the doctrines of grace have the cause of God at heart, 
seeing they tight against him? The old leaven is 
not purged out of themselves — they are yet in their 
sins. If a man is saved, he is saved by grace, — rich, 
free, distinguishing grace. Now, therefore, beware 
how you fight against God. I tell you this, as one 
who has obtained mercy to be faithful ; — none of your 



28 AN OUTCRY PROM THE 

flatterers will stand you in any stead in the day of your 

calamity. 

T know an instance in which infidels rejoiced to see 
how, by way of burlesque, you treat the awful declen- 
sions of the present day. This is pleasing to their 
flesh, and therefore, they are glad to see one so much 
like themselves. Tt is their delight to drive all thoughts 
of God from their minds. If God were your Counsellor, 
you would be ready to cry out with Jerenn'ah : — "O 
that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain 
of tears, that I might weep day and night, for the slain 
of tlie daughter of ni}^ people." T do assure you that 
there are more people killed in soul, by corrupt doctrine 
in this day and generation, than there were in the 
time of the Reformation, by the fire and sword of the 
Papists. 

The shadows of the evening are going over us very 
fast. — We know not but in a little time the Scriptures 
may be taken from us, and then Egyptian darkness 
must succeed. A Reformation from the trumpery of 
the day among the clergy, and also among the people, 
is indeed desirable; but this is not all that is wanting, 
both among priests and, people. The blind lead the 
blind, — and if a soul converted to God stay among 
them, he will drink into their spirit, and get his under- 
standino; blindfolded. He cannot keep up communion 
with God amidst idolatrous worship. God will not 
mix with the adversary. It behoves all of us to prove 
for ourselves if we are in the faith ; — to know for our- 
selves if God has pardoned us, through the blood of the 
liamb ; — to come to the touchstone of God's word, and 
see if Jesus Christ is in us by his Spirit, and if God 
is our Counsellor. If that be not the case with us, we 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 29 

may rest assured that God has not sent us to reprove 
Others. 

If you inquire who sent me thus to write ; I answer, 
God did : — he put all these words into my heart, and 
caused me to write them ; and if you hear them not, I 
am clean from your blood. 

If God's own way of saving sinners does not suit 
you, you had better keep it to yourself, and not give 
the adversaries of God, liberty to let loose the tongue 
against his gospel, nor against his tried servants ; many 
of whom, in the time of John Calvin, or thereabouts, 
shed their hearts' blood in defence of it. Think not 
that our Lord Jesus Christ will be mild and peaceable 
to his adversaries ; for " out of his mouth goeth a sharp, 
two-edged sword." "He shall smite the earth with the 
rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he 
slay the wicked." The gospel is made a savor of life 
unto life, and of death unto death, whatever men may 
say to the contrary. He has not given it into the hands 
of men, to play with, nor to ridicule, nor to mock. 

I thought well to give you this warning, before I 
warn my family to cease from taking your paper ; as I 
do not wish them to drink into your principles, nor to 
reprove others, before they have first proved themselves. 
The Lord has caused me to act in this affair, according 
to his word, which says, "Debate thy cause with thy 
neighbor himself, and discover not a secret to another." 
Therefore I have not published this letter, because I do 
not wish to make known the faults of others until God's 
time : and then it must be done. 

As you are in the habit of publishing, you can use 
your own discretion, but do not publish a part without 
the whole ; for I am not ashamed of the gospel, — it is 



30 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

the power of God to my soul's salvation ; nor of the 
cross of Christ, — it is the way to the crown ; therefore 
I subscribe myself, 

Your Soul's Well wisher, 

A. C. 



1826. 
To my Family^ who with myself are under the 
yoke and bondage of Mr. H. 

My Dear Children,— 

It gives me a degree of pain when I consider that 
you were born in a day of such awful declensions from 
the power of godliness ; — a day wherein the love of 
God's children has waxen cold ; — and Avherein they 
who profess godliness, have become cruel, hard-hearted, 
proud, and despisers of God's work upon the souls of 
others. 

I have endeavored to lead you into paths, which 
seemed to me the most eligible for training you up in 
the fear of God. Bat it has been my mishap, as well 
as yours, to fall among thieves and robbers, and those 
of the worst kind : — I mean those who have the word 
of truth in their mouth, — the word of grace on their 
tongue, — but have not the love of God in their heart. 

It has been a great source of unhappiness to me for 
the last three years, that when I have had a hope that 
you would seek the Lord with all diligence, others 
have been perpetually ringing in your ears, some such 
words as these : "It is of no use if you do seek the 
Lord ; if you are not elected, you cannot be saved." 
And this they do, with such an air of arrogance, as if 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 31 

they themselves were lords over God's election. If we 
only remark that, we must endeavor to walk in the 
Spirit, and not falfil the lusts of the flesh, it will set 
their tongues agoing for hours, and they will say that, 
we are legal, and wish to gain the favor of God by our 
own merit, &c. &c. 

The real truth is, they know nothing at all about 
their own election, having never made their calling and 
election sure; then, how can they know any thing 
about God's election, which is a secret thing, and be- 
longs to God only ? Neither do they give any explana- 
tion, whereby any one may receive edification ; for 
what they advance at one time, they deny at another. 
But taking it for granted that a person is safe after he 
has once believed, they spare not to spit in the face of 
those who do not wish to be led by their rules ; — one 
rule is, to know our safe standing by the power of God's 
electing love upon our hearts. 
I If this really is the close of the Sardian Church 
' state, as some say it is, we have had an awful specimen 
of it for the last three years, and more especially, with- 
S in the last three months. You know that God had left us 
but this one friend in the world, and you have been both 
eye and ear witnesses how he shoots out the lip against 
those tried servants of God, whose heads are laid in 
the dust, and whose writings we hold in just estimation, 
— if only one word or sentence is read which does not 
suit his taste. — Indeed, these writings are our only com- 
panions in our solitude, next to the sacred volumes of 
the Scriptures. You know that one afternoon, we could 
not so much as kneel down before God after such re- 
bellion ; and many times your father and I have wished 
ourselves far away from this kind of worship. 

It was for your sake that my mind has been chiefly 



32 AX OUTCRY FROM THE 

hurt. I knew it was impossible for you to distinffiiish 
between good and pfIL If you have any discernment, 
you will see that this man is never happy but when he 
is the preacher, although he knows the power of God 
is not with him : for he has backshdden in heart from 
Godj and in all my observations I have never heard 
him express sorrow for this ; and I well know that with 
this beam in his own eye. he cannot see clearly to cast 
the mote out of the eyes of others. With these 
thoughts I have labored in soul a long time, hoping 
and wishiug to see the burden on his shoulders, but in 
vain. I assure you that I wish to have done with such 
worshippers, until the Lord in infinite mercy give unto 
them true repentance, which I hope and trust he will 
do. 

It is a hard thing for me to be obliged to write this, 
and still more so to be compelled to give it to him with 
my own hands : however, it must be done : for God has 
made my way straight before my face, and I may not 
turn aside to the right hand, nor to the left. As for me, 
the Lord comforts me in all the opposition that comes 
against ma — He makes me to rejoice in tribulation, for 
I know that such is my portion here below ; but in the 
L : : ' ^r 5 IS I have peace, and that is my portion too, of 
■ : i a. I the artifice of Satan can never rob me. 

jlay the Lord manifest to him that I have not done 
this thing of myself but by the power of God in me, 
and may it prove for the good of his soul ! May the 
Lord give unto you eyes to see your teachers, as he has 
unto your father and me : and an understand incr heart 
to know that you must not reprove others in spiritual 
thinors. until all be right between God and your own 
souls ; otherwise, your words will fell like water spill- 



BROKEN WALLS OB" ZION. 33 

ed upon the ground, and the nakedness of your souls 
will be discovered. 

I choose to give him this letter, rather than write one 
to him, that it may answer a double purpose. 

Your aifectionate Mother, 

A. C. 



1826. 
To Mr. . 

My Dear Friend, — 

I have no excuse to plead for writing now but an 
overwhelmed heart. If you were displeased with my re- 
quest, wherefore did you comply with it ? I did not 
wish you to do any thing for me against your will. 
You certainly ought to be the best judge of your own 
mind, and if you had let me know your objections, I 
should have been satisfied. 

I assure you there cannot a much greater grief happen 
to me, than for any thing which I write to be made 
public ; but that cannot be avoided, because I am not 
my own. The Lord makes my way clear, therefore, I 
must submit. As it respects myself, it is a grief, be- 
cause I know that the scourge of the tongue will come 
against me on that account. However, the will of God 
must be done ; for he that delivered me from the power 
of the dog, can also deliver me from the power of the 
tongue, and from the open jaws of the lion. 

If I have not written according to your mind, I can- 
not help it. If I were not sanctioned by the Lord him- 
self, I should be of all others the most miserable ; and 



34 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

should be left destitute of that refuge which shields the 
defenceless head in the day of trouble. I have been 
compelled to write that which I have written, and none 
out of the family have ever seen my writings, except 
those to whom they were sent ; nor will they. This 
is my consolation when the scourge of the tongue 
comes against me ; — when I sit in darkness ; — or when 
I am engaged in the fiery contest with him who thirsts 
for my blood. 

With regard to those things which you wrote, I 
must say, that I am no friend to divisions, unless it be 
for Christ's sake ; then we must divide, and resist even 
though it be unto blood. It seems you are out of the 
circle, and you best know the cause of it. A Christian 
man is called to endure more than others ; but his are 
the promises. The Lord who gathers in the outcasts 
will shield and shelter him. 

With regard to ,those things which I have written — 
I know they need explanation ; but my Christian 
brethren, instead of desiring that explanation as they 
ought, bind me hand and foot, as it were, and cast me 
into the open mouth of the adversary. Then, if the 
Lord hides his face, which is mostly the case, my faith 
fails, and I grope in the dark until the Lord shews him- 
self Eigain ; then the cords wherewith I am bound 
burst asunder, and their own emptiness is plainly man- 
ifest to me. This was done by a letter sent to me 
lately, wherein they endeavored to make me believe 
that I was influenced by a wrong spirit ; — that I was 
in an error ; — that I was endeavoring to work out my 
own salvation, (fee. <fec. After they have thus cast me 
down, they vainly endeavor to give a word of consola- 
tion ; but at all such plastering God will laugh. I 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 35 

know they do it ignorantly, and I pray God not to lay 
it to their charge. 

My complaint is not to man, if it were, I might well 
be troubled, and cry out with one of old : " O earth ! 
cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no 
place." I know they cannot act faith upon my account, 
and if they could, they could only be partakers of my 
affliction, and fulfil that which is written : " Weep with 
them that weep." 

My friend, do not you oppose the work of God in 
me; but in all humility of mind, desire the Lord to 
give you an explanation. It may be he will, and if he 
do, you will not be offended with what I have written. 
The time is hastening on, when we shall hunger no 
more ; — neither shall the son of perdition vex us any 
more ; — neither shall the floods of tribulation or perse- 
cution hurt us any more. 

Your aftectionate Friend and Sister in Christ, 

A. 0. 



New York, January 1st, 1828. 

To My Family. 

My Dear Children, — 
The reason of my not writing for so long a time, is 
not because the Lord has forsaken me, far from it; but 
because he has not given me any thing to write until 
this day, which is the first of the New- Year ; and I 
receive it with gratitude, not for my sake only, but for 
yours also. It shows that he has yet his watchful eye 
over us, either to send a word of conviction or consola- 



36 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

tion, as his wisdom may see fit, which he generally 
does when it is most needed. 

I have often been afraid of the sword where no fear 
was ; — not of the sword of my enemies, for that could 
not hurt me ; but my chief fear was, that the Lord in 
anger would send the sword of his Word in judgment 
to you, as he has done to those who honor him with 
the lip only. I take it as a favor and as a special act 
of his grace, that he has sent this word in mercy to 
your souls, if you will hear it and pay due attention. 

The words that made a deep impression on me this 
morning, were the following ; — " Ye that have escaped 
the sword, go away, stand not still." — Jer. li. 50. 
These words were spoken to the Jews who dwelt in 
literal Babylon. — They being carried away captive by 
the Babylonish kings, were exhorted by the prophets to 
be ready to flee when the time should come for them 
to be delivered. These words came to me in due 
season, for we live in the midst of mystical Babylon ; 
and have often had warnings to come out from among 
them, and to be separate, that God himself might be 
our Teacher, and that we might be the sons and daugh- 
ters of the Lord Almighty. 

I know the many snares and temptations that are set 
by the enemy for you that are yet children, particularly 
at this season of the year, when young people are uni- 
ting themselves together in parties of pleasure, of revel- 
ry, of riot, (fcc. These things are a great dishonor to 
God, and a great injury to the souls of the children of 
those who call themselves Christians. I am no stran- 
ger to what you must feel through being obliged to 
forsake the society of your young friends at such sea- 
sons ; but be assured, the honor of our most blessed 
Lord, calls for it ; — the honor of your parents, calls for 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 37 

it ; — and the welfare of your never dying souls, calls 
for it. 

My dear children, we have as yet escaped from the 
sword of God's anger, and wrathful displeasure ; there- 
lore, we must not stand still and consider at this time 
of the year, when all these temptations are surround- 
ing us ; we ought rather to fly from such things with 
all our might. If they scourge you with the tongue, 
bear your testimony against their folly ; — do not fear to 
be evil spoken of iii a good cause. It is the Lord's 
watchword to you, as well as to us, not to stand still ; 
but to seek the Lord with all your might, for he has 
promised all necessary things to those who seek him. 
On this you may depend, — the Lord is a much better 
Judge than you can be, in appointing your connexions. 
When you have found him, you will come with bold- 
ness as humble beggars, to present your supplications 
to him who is able to save you, and to prove unto you 
v/hat is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of 
God. 

Two years since, I was called upon to bear my testi- 
mony against these pernicious practices in word only. 
Now, you are called upon to bear your testimony against 
them by your actions. Of this be assured,— we must 
do the will of God as well as believe his Word, and if 
you are hated for this, remember, you are hated for 
your parents' sake ; — and we who are your parents, are 
hated for Christ's sake ; — yet, in reality, it is not we 
who are hated, it is that ingrafted Word which is in 
the hearts of all true believers, that is hated by all 
worldlings, in Church, or State. 

Christ says by his Spirit : — " Bring up your children 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." This 
watchword comes very seasonably to us also, for which 

4 



38 AX OUTCRY FROM THE 

I desire to be thankful. The Lord has seen our afflic- 
tions ; — he has seen how we are shunned and deserted 
on all sides because of his Word : — he has seen how we 
sit solitan'. '" as a city besieged," rather than dishonor 
him, or give to his enemies that honor which is due 
to him alone. 

If we stand still, or look back, after having put our 
hands to the plough, we shall not be fit for the king- 
dom of God. Those who build houses, are warned to 
sit down and count the cost. — They who march against 
an enemy, who seems to have all the power in his own 
hands, are exhorted, first to see if they be able to over- 
come him that cometh against them with so ofreat a force. 
— He that putteth his hand to the gospel plough, must 
consider in himself if he he able to fight against the 
worldj the flesh, and the devil, which will all oppose 
him in their turn. Indeed. Christians are called to part 
with their right hands — to pluck out their right eyes — 
to prefer the ways of our Lord Christ, to the love of 
parents, brethren, sisters, children, and all friends. ^^ e 
may safely answer, that we are not able so to do : but he 
who has espoused our cause, or rather his own, is per- 
fectly able to give sufficient strength in time of need ; 
hence the caution : '• Stand not still/" Remember how 
our spiritual father Jacob wrestled until he prevailed, 
and his name was called Israel. By continual wrest- 
ling, and callingf for that strength which is made per- 
fect in weakness, we shall obtain such answers as will 
at once put to silence our adversaries. 

Althousfh we stand alone in the midst of a populous 
city, the Lord is able to add to our number in his own 
time ; for he has most surely seen our affliction, and 
heard our reproach. It well becomes us to be patient : 
— though the Lord may tarry long, he doeth all things 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 39 

well ; yet we do not see this at all times. A Father of 
the fatherless, and a Judge of the widow, is God, who 
setteth the solitary in families, and gathereth in the out- 
casts. His watchful eye is ever over them for good, 
whatever they may suffer from fears within and foes 
without. 

The Lord has ever had a remnant to mourn for 
Zion's calamity, and ever will. He has not yet called 
us to resist unto blood, as he has many thousands, nor 
has he given us into the hands of our enemies ; but he 
has by his powerful Word driven them out from us, nor 
can they rise up against us, because he has fenced us 
in on every side, as it is written : " Upon all the glory 
shall be a defence." In time of necessity, he can make 
our " horn iron, and our hoofs brass;"— he can make us 
as his "goodly horse in the day of battle," — he can 
make us mount up by faith, as the eagle mounts in the 
air, and " scorn the horse and his rider." Then let us 
ever take courage, and fly from mystical Babylon, that 
we may not be partakers of her plagues. 

These few words are a New-Year's-gift from the 
Lord of hosts. I receive it with thankfulness, and sin- 
cerely hope your hearts and ears will be sanctified to 
receive it too. Remember, the Lord is able to make 
even a prison r Bethel to onr souls. 

Your affectionate Mother, 

A. C. 



40 



AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



^ 



New York, 1829. 



To Mrs. R 



Madam, — 

I take the earliest opportunity to address a few lines 
to you, in hope that your anger towards me has sub- 
sided. I am extremely sorr}^ that you should be so 
much offended with me for doinof that which I believed 
to be my duty to God and to you ; which was, to warn 
you of your dangerous standing before God. While 
you corrupt his Holy Word, and put on it false glosses, 
I will take upon me by the will of God, to answer those 
things of which you accused me when I saw you last. 

I came home, and committed to paper all that I could 
recollect of your own words. T shall not bring against 
you any railing accusation, but shall speak forth the 
words of truth and soberness. First, you say that, " we 
have sinned as the Israelites did, who were bitten by 
serpents ;" and that, " we have agreed together to tempt 
the Holy Spirit of God." Secondly, you say that, " I 
never use secret prayer ;" and that, " I never read the 
Word of God." Thirdly, you say that, " your God has 
prohibited you from receiving any more of my writ- 
ings ;" and that, *' I ought to receive the word from 
your mouth, without inquiring of the Lord, or bringing 
the matter to the test of God's Holy Word ;" and that, 
" we had raised to ourselves altars," (fee. These are the 
first charges which you bring against me. May the 
Lord the Holy Spirit guide my hand and heart, while I 
answer for myself before the omniscient God ! 

My sins are great and many, I acknowledge, for 
which I continually mourn and grieve ; but God in 
mercy has taken them away by the blood of his cross 



i 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZIQN. 41 

and passion. I am a sinner saved by grace, as all other 
sinners must be, if they be saved at all ; and do not be- 
long to that class of sinners which you have repre- 
sented ; or if indeed I have belonged to it, I have 
looked to him whom the brazen serpent represented, 
and do live. — All glory in the highest be given to him ! 

If to desire you to unite with me in prayer to God, 
and bring all your matters to the test of his Word, which 
says, *' If two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
any thing that you shall ask," agreeable to the will of 
God, " it shall be done for you of my Father which is 
in Heaven." — If to give you a gentle warning and ad- 
monition, not to run in any case before you have 
proved your calling to be of God ;— if this is to tempt 
the Holy Spirit, then I have tempted him. If I never 
had used secret prayer, you would never have seen any 
of my writings. And as to what you say, that " I do 
not read the Word of God," I have witnesses to the 
contrary, if my own writings did not testify the fal- 
sity of your assertions. The Word of God tells me 
that I must not believe every thing that proceeds out 
of your mouth without inquiry ; for God commands 
us not to believe every word which is told us, but to 
try the spirits, whether they be of God or not. I must 
first prove if Jesus Christ be in you by his Spirit, 
which I have not yet done. 

Your warning that I should beware what I said con- 
cerning Mr. O , was both unnecessary and useless ; 

— you could be no judge in that case. They only 
who are endued with the Spirit of God, are able to 
judo^e in spiritual things. But you bring a railing ac- 
cusation against Mr. . If you could prove it, why 

did you not tell him his fault between himself and you 
alone, as God's Word commands us, and as I have 

4* 



42 



AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



done to you, and not suffer sin in your neighbor to go 
unreproved. Whatever he may be in the sight of God, 
neither the wrath of man, nor the tongue of slander, 
can ever work the righteousness of God in him. 

You say that, "I am righteous over much, and there- 
fore in danger of being destroyed.'- By this, you mean 
that I was too scrupulously nice in inspecting your re- 
velations so closely. I answer, you should have proved 
yourself, and your revelations to be of God, and that 
would have saved me the trouble, as it is written : 
" Let every man prove his own work, and then he shall 
have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another." 
If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged, and it 
would be well for us, if, when we are judged, we were 
only chastened of the Lord that we might not be con- 
demned with the world. If any man, or woman, speak 
a vision out of his or her own heart, and not out of the 
mouth of the Lord, we are commanded not to listen to 
him or her. 

Next, 3^ou say that, •• your God has commanded you 
to return my last letter, as he does not wish you to keep 
it in the house." I fear your God hates the light, and 
will not suffer you to come unto it. I pray you to read 
Ps. cxli. 5. You tell me the word of the Lord is no 
burden, alluding to that which I had written before, 
that '' the word of the Lord was a sore burden to me." 
Was the word of the Lord no burden to Moses, when 
he made so many excuses, rather than be the messenger 
of God to his brethren and to Pharaoh ? Was the word 
of the Lord no burden to Jeremiah, nor to Jonah, who 
rather than be God's messenger to carry his word to 
Nineveh, fled from his presence, and was near perishing 
in his rebellion ? 

It is also a sore burden to me when I see your per- 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 43 

versions of Scripture ; and it is a sore burden when I 
go to your house to expostulate with you, to see if by 
any means I can bring- you to the test of God's Word 
in the hands of the Spirit, because I know how you fly 
in a passion whenever I attempt to do so. But what 
of that 1 The truth must be spoken, though men and 
devils rise against it. I was compelled to pursue you. 
The honor of God's Word, which he will honor more 
than his great name, calls for it, and my own likewise ; 
for if I speak lies in God's name, or if I consent unto 
you, when I know you are wrong, or when you wrest 
the Scriptures to suit your own fancies, it will be to my 
own dishonor. 

Again, you say that "you knew I should come 
to your house, because God had told you that he 
would put a hook in my nose, and bring me there." 
To this I answer, If it was a hook it was a merciful one, 
for I was determined to go and hear what you had to 
say against my last letter ; and I am as glad that I did 
go, as Luther was that he went to Rome ; because at 
that time, God completely unmasked you to me. In- 
stead of t)pposing any thing that I had written, you 
brought against me that railing accusation. I sat by 
your bed side, and heard you patiently until you had 
finished ; with this exception, however, that I held up 
my hands in utter astonishment, and said, O Mrs. 
R ! how can you say such things 7 

Your bitterness towards me at that time, put me in 
mind of Milton's toad at the ear of Eve. When the 
Angel, as he represents it, touched him with his sword, 
he resumed his proper shape, which was that of the 
devil. So, when you were touched with the Word of 
God, which is the sword in the hand of the Spirit, you 
assumed your own proper likeness, showing anger and 



44 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



passion, and you used lying words, which God never 
put into your mouth. When you had no more to say, 
I arose, bade you farewell, and left your house with a 
joyful and glad heart, to think that God had separated 
me from you, and that he had counted me worthy to 
suffer shame and defamation for his truth's sake. 

You told me at different times, many other absurdi- 
ties, which I did not then much notice, being too busy 
with my writing ; but I have since had more leisure to 
look into them. " These things," you said, *' were done 
by you, at the commandment of the Lord; — ^First, by 
breaking a bottle after the manner of Jeremiah ; second- 
ly, by walking three times round the Bowling-Green ; 
and thirdly, by sending stones to London." To these 
absurdities an answer is not necessary. To assert that 
God commanded such things to be done, is too con- 
temptible to need a reply. At another time, you said 
that, " God had forbidden you to do any housework • 
and that, " he had commanded you to study the Word 
only." T fear you have studied the Word to no profit, 
and I call upon you to hear what the Lord says by the 
mouth of his Apostle Paul, who commands the Lord's 
people, " that with quietness they work, and eat their own 
bread." Agatn ; " Not slothful in business ; fervent in spir- 
it." Yea, the Apostle appears at first view, to be severe 
on this subject, saying, " If any would not work, neither 
should he eat;" of course he cannot mean the disabled, 
nor little children. 

You also told me that, " God had commanded you 
to shake off that little girl which your daughter had 
adopted, as Paul shook the viper from his hand, be- 
cause she was sometimes troublesome to you." To 
this I answer, It is not the work of God to give such 
commands, but he tells us by his Word, to train up 






BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 45 

children in his fear, whether they be our own, or adopt- 
ed, and if they become troublesome, they ought to be 
corrected. He also tells us that we must not spare for 
their crying ; for if we beat them with a rod they shall 
not die. 

Now I will tell you the truth, which is so manifest 
imto me. If you had not come to me to relate your 
visions and revelations from time to time, I should have 
had nothing to bring against you. But I listened to 
your tales, and believed before I had searched out the 
matter, which was my greatest folly. However, the 
Lord saw fit that I should not long be deceived. And 
now I tell you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that those writings which you designed for him whom 
you called an erroneous preacher, were designed by 
Christ himself to find out the falsity of your visions 
and revelations ; therefore, you were so highly offended 
when the Word was applied to you, to search out the 
depths of Satan in yourself 

It seems that among all your friends, you have had 
none to warn you of your danger. May the Lord help 
you to consider, before it be too late ! I thank him 
with my whole heart that I have obtained mercy to be 
faithful unto you, that you may take warning in tini'^. 
You were never of one heart and one soul with me ; If 
you had, you would not have been so angry with me 
when I said you were superstitious concerning the 
sparks in the candle, and the insects. From that mo- 
ment, I saw that all was not right between God and 
your soul, and my suspicions have since been realized. 

I beseech you to make your own calling and election 
sure, before you make any further attempt to instruct 
erroneous ministers. If the man to whom you sent 
my writings did not preach sound doctrine, neither do 



46 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

you use " sound speech that cannot be condemned.'' 
Be not deceived ; the Holy Spirit of God is not the 
author of your visions. May the Lord help you to 
search your own heart, that you may see who is the 
author of them, and may he give you the grace of re- 
pentance. 

This one thing T add; — Because I have declared unto 
you several times, that I had not the gift of speech to 
pray before you, as you desired me, you have since 
thrown it in my teeth, and said that " I never pray." 

I tell you this ; I would rather pray unto God with 
my heart and understanding, as Hannah did, than have 
the gift of speech in prayer ; for though it is desirable, 
yet it is not absolutely necessary, as I am not the head 
of my family. I am not the first who have expressed 
my desire for a door of utterance ; the saints of old did 
the same, even Paul, demands the prayers of the Church, 
that God would give him a door of utterance. 

I am a poor creature, the Lord knows, and do not 
deserve the least of all his mercies ; yet, with that small 
portion of light and grace which God has allotted me, I 
esteem myself rich in Christ, who has permitted me to 
fall among thieves for the trial of their pretended faith, 
as well as for the trial of the faith of God's elect. 
Many times have I fallen ; but God has in mercy 
raised me up again, lest I should be carried away from 
the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus, by false shep- 
herds. 

I desire to thank him for his guardian care of me, 
and for keeping me from the power of all fraudulent 
deceivers who come in my way, and for giving me 
knowledge sufficient to detect them. They may, and 
do deceive for a time, but it is limited ; for when God's 
time arrives, they become unmasked before me. I 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 47 

therefore glory in my infirmities, and desire to submit 
to God's will, that the power of Christ may rest upon 
me ; because when I am weakest in myself, then am I 
strong in Christ. I have been a mark for the enemy to 
shoot at, and a mocking-stock also ; however, our King 
says it must be so, and tells us to be of good cheer, he 
has overcome the world. Thus has God the Holy 
Ghost opened my eyes, that I might see and shun those 
wicked spirits who are not of God, for many such are 
gone out into the world. I can never more give you 
the right hand of fellowship, until God give you a 
right and a contrite heart, and I earnestly wish he may; 
for I perceive that the gray head is not always v/ise ; 
neither do the aged always understand judgment. 
Your sincere but disappointed Friend, 

A. C. 



1829. 
To Mr. C n. 

Sir, 

You will be surprised no doubt at the liberty that I 
have taken in writing to you, seeing I am a stran- 
ger. I have heard much talk of you as a preacher ; — 
some have said one thing, and some another. These 
different opinions created in me a strong desire to hear 
you myself, that I also might show my opinion ; but I 
have not been able, through a certain lameness which 
befell me some years since, the cause of which I will 
inform you. But first, I will tell you who I am. — I am 
a sign, or a thing spoken against. 

It has pleased the Lord, whose I am, and whom I 



48 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

wish to serve in spirit and in truth, to set me in front 
of one of his battles — not to slay me, as David did 
Uriah, but to teach me how to handle the sword of the 
Lord against his enemies ; therefore, he assigned me a 
place where he knew that valiant men were. I was in 
myself but weak and feeble, and withal, I had at that 
time a very sore inward sickness, of which the enemy 
took great advantage. The archers shot at me from oif 
the wall, and wounded me severely. I lost my eyes, 
and ears, and mouth. In this distressed situation, I 
used my hands, and so prevailed for a time. At length 
they wounded me in the hand, but this wound was not 
mortal, though my hands were rendered useless for a 
while. In this trouble I prayed unto the Lord who is 
my Captain, and truly prayer was the only weapon I 
could use at that time, and that he gave me. He im- 
mediately flew to my relief, — touched one of my eyes, 
and healed it. The moment I could see with this one 
eye, I perceived that the weapons of the adversaries of 
my Lord were dipped in gall, which was the true 
reason why I was thus mangled and torn. When I 
became acquainted with the position of the enemy, and 
saw how undauntedly they rushed on Immanuel's 
sharp-pointed spear. I trembled for them, and used my 
hands as much as might be, and at the same time, I 
prayed unto the Lord to enlighten the eyes of the ene- 
my, to see their slippery and unsafe standing before 
God. But instead of being thankful for my good will | 
towards them, they became incensed against me, and 
mocked and reproached the labor of my hands from 
their high places. 

In process of time, my Captain lent me his own 
sword, and so guided my hand with it, that the stoutest 
of them were put to flight. After this, he gave me one 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 49 

ear and part of another, in which state I remain, hoping 
that it is yet his mind and will to make me quite whole 
M^hen he shall see fit. I live in a low place, though I 
am a citizen of no mean City. 

Hearing that you are a man of war, and knowing 
that you have now a matter in hand, I gat me on the 
watch tower to see how you would handle it ; for he 
that useth the office of a deacon or minister, or han- 
dleth a matter well, procureth to himself a good de- 
gree, and great boldness in the faith. I have long de- 
sired to join myself to some of my Lord's freemem ; 
but being such an object, they are all afraid of me, and 
shun me, though I have not done them any harm. My 
wounds and bruises are all to myself, for no one can 
see them by looking at me. If I have but one eye, the 
Lord has made me quick- sighted with it, by which 
means T detected my Lord's adversaries, though they 
were wise and subtle as serpents. I know that my suf- 
ferings are for the cause of Christ and his truth, which 
causes me to rejoice that God has counted me worthy 
to be a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. 

When I saw the little book which was sent out by 

some of Mr. P 's congregation, wherein they have 

reviled you and your party, for the testimony which 
you have given from the mouth of the young woman, 
whose conscience, it seems, has roused her to make 
known deeds of which Paul the Apostle says, " It is a 
shame even to speak of those things which are done 
of them in secret;" — when I saw they had railed at 
you for want of a commission from other churches, and 
reviled your revelations and those of your party; I pre- 
sumed that if you had handled the matter as becometh 
saints, I should have a companion in my tribulation, 

and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus, and I would 

5 



50 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



then come and hear you preach, though I walk with 
crutches. 

Some years since I was shut up in prison, and my 
feet were made fast in the stocks : — not for my good 
deeds nor for my bad ones, but because the Lord would 
have it so. This has left so Pfreat a lameness that I 
have walked with crutches ever since ; and though my 
prison doors have been set open, I am still under re- 
strictions, because my Chief Physician thinks it best for 
me to tarry at home, lest by gadding abroad I should 
endano-er mv health. 

I now call upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, to hear me patiently, for I desire to justify you 
as far as God has given me understanding on this sub- 
ject. You have begun well by telling Zvlr. P him- 
self wherein he has transgressed, and the event has 
proved that he v/ould not hear you. You have told it 
to his church, and it seems they will not hear you, but 
revile you for your labor of love. So far, you have 
delivered your sou] from their blood ; and if God has 
given them the spirit of slumber, — eyes that they should 
not see, and ears that they should not hear, it is to fill 
up the measure of their iniquity. 

Their assertions that yon have no commission from 
other churches for the ministry, have no weight with 
me. Who would go to the present Apostate Protestant 
Church for a commission to preach, if he had a grain 
of spiritual sense ? If you have no other call to your 
office, than the call of those who may deem themselves 
the Church at this present day, you are not fit to be an 
instructer of the kingdom of God. 

I desire now to speak unto you as one friend does to 
another, concerning what you and your party have 
asserted ; — " That God by a divine revelation has 



1 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. SI 

shown you that Mr. P is the father of that young 

woman's child." I confess I have searched the Scrip- 
tures on this subject, but cannot find that this is God's 
way of revealing such things. Read the fifth of Num- 
bers, — you will there see that the truth or falsehood of 
jealousy, was not brought to light by a divine revela- 
tion, but by the trial made by the Jewish priests, or by 
circumstances. When the wise king Solomon judged 
the two harlots, he did not know which was the true 
mother of the child by a divine revelation ; but by the 
wisdom which God gave unto him, he was enabled to 
find it out by circumstances. I know that Nathan the 
prophet was sent unto David to declare unto him his 
sin, and the judgment of God concerning it, but I will 
not say that God gave luito Nathan a divine revelation, 
because the Scriptures are silent about it ; but this I 
will say, — that there was no necessity for one ; for no 
doubt remains that most of David's servants knew 
who was the father of Bathsheba's child without a reve- 
lation. David acknowledged his sin, and that was 
enough. So in this case ; the girl has confessed her 
sin, and if that is not enough, there can be no other 
witness until the conscience of the father smite him, 
and rouse him to acknowledge it. 

Do not think I wish to dispute you out of divine 
revelations, as if there were none. God is my 
witness that I have no such intent, for the gospel is a 
divine revelation, and unless it be revealed to the soul 
by the power of the Spirit, we cannot be saved. But 
it is not the manner in which God acts, to show one 
man's sins to another by divine revelations. If it were, 
we should be able to escape many evils, into which we 
are too apt to fall through designing men. 

It is far from my desire to give any offence, but you, 



52 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

as a teacher, no doubt understand the word which 
says, " Let the prophets speak, and let the others judge. 
If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let 
the first hold his peace," for '• The spirits of the prophets 
are subject to the prophets." Therefore, you cannot 
blame me if I prophesy among yon, seeing I have the 
Word of God on my side ; for his word is in my heart 
as a burning fire, and I must write to be eased. Let 
me inquire of you. Would such a revelation stand you 
in any stead before a temporal judge? Would he not 
laugh you to scorn ? Be not deceived ; divine revela- 
tions are between God and the believing soul, for his 
spiritual benefit and direction. I know what they are 
to my soul's establishment, and guidance, and comfort ; 
however, God never showed me the sins of others by 
a divine revelation, but by observation — by watching 
for their souls — by communication — by his putting me 
into a state of affliction. Here 1 could see clearly if 
they grieved for the afflictions of God's people, or if 
they sought their own honor by thrusting the lame out 
of their v/ay, and not permitting them to be healed, if 
they could by any means prevent it. 

In the furnace, God tries us to purge away our 
dross, and we are then better able to try others, for 
" The spiritual man judgeth all things," but he who 
is not spiritual cannot judge others, because he knoweth 
not the goings of God in his own soul. God has re- 
vealed many things to his servants the Prophets and 
Apostles, for the benefit of the Church in all ages, and 
his secret is with the righteous ; nevertheless, he keeps 
them ignorant of presumptuous sinners imtil they be 
found out by circumstances. The wicked dealings of 
Hophni and Phinehas, were known to all the people of 
the Jews before those messages came from God to Eli. 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 53 



How did king David find out Ahithophel, Shimei, Joab, 
<fec ? By circumstances. How did Peter find out Simon 
Magus, but by his wickedness ? How did Paul find 
out Alexander, Hymeneus, Philetus, and the false Apos- 
tles, but by circumstances? 

You will perhaps say unto me. Hath not God a 
just right to reveal such things if he please ? He cer- 
tainly has, yet T know he will not please to do any 
thing contrary to his will. He will honor his Word 
above his name, for " It is the glory of God to conceal 
a thing ; but the honor of kinoes is to search out a mat- 
ter ;" and Job says, " The cause which I knew not I 
searched out." " He that is first in his own cause 
seemeth just ; but his neighbor cometh and searcheth 
him." Our God is that neighbor, for he, by his Spirit 
in the spiritual man, judgeth all things. I fear you 
have declared this revelation to be of God before you 
have proved it ; for if we prove or judge ourselves, we 
shall not be judged, and it would be well for us, if 
when we are judged, we were only chastened of the 
Lord that we might not be condemned with the world. 

A few words now concerning the Pamphlet sent 
forth by one of your party ; it needs but little com- 
ment. The titlepage carries its own evidence to 
every discerning Christian that the whole is nought, 
and that God the Holy Ghost was not the dictator of 
it, for he is not the author of lies and confusion. " A 
broad hint to Nobody," is one part of the title, while 

Mr P is hinted at throughout the whole, and his 

name is put in full ; not horizontally, but perpendicu- 
larly, and he is thus held up to contempt by abusive 
language and burlesque, which is no part of a Chris- 
tian man's duty ; " For the wrath of man worketh not 
the righteousness of God," neither does burlesque. 

5* 



54 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



1 



Will God honor you in this ? He will not. Why do 
you take up the sword against him and his people, and 
render railing for railing ? Can you not suffer defama- 
tion for the cause of Christ ? Are the sufferings of 
Christ, who you know became obedient unto death, of 
so small esteem that you refuse to be a partaker? 
" When he was reviled, he reviled not again." Have 
you forgotten what Paul says ? " Being reviled, we 
bless ; being defamed, we entreat ; being persecuted, 
we suffer it." Has not God thought you worthy to 
suffer shame for his name? Will you not bear their 
revilings, but retort upon them, and so render railing 
for railing ? Is the cross so burdensome to you ? Are 
you so wise in Christ that you shun the cross, and can- 
not become a fool for his sake. I tell you plainly that 
you are only buffeted for your faults, and are a par- 
taker of the same spirit which influences them. If 
what this young person has said and sworn to, is not 
believed by the professing church, they will not believe 
you, use what art you may. The people in this city 
have been too much duped of late by this kind of reve- 
lations. 

You have not published your call to the ministry, 
yet, if I am rightly informed, you say that '• the Lord 
has sent you here with a fan." If this be true, it never 
was more necessary, because iniquity abounds in the 
church, and the love of many has waxen cold ; the 
reason of which is, their leaders, or teachers, cause 
them to err, because they learn their doctrine from the 
precepts of men, or in theological schools, and therefore 
cannot profit this people at all. If you have God's fan, 
or in other words, his Holy Spirit, which is compared 
to the wind which bloweth where it listeth, you will 
do your utmost to purge the Lord's floor, like the win- 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 55 

nowing fan which separates the chaff from the wheat. 
If God has sent you with his fan, you are sure of your 
calling. If God has sent you, you have not entered 
into the office of the ministry of your own head, nor 
for filthy lucre's sake ; but of a ready mind, like the 
true servants of Christ, except a few obstinate ones, as 
were Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah, &c. Have you given 
your audience a proper warning to come out from 
among false teachers ; — from those who preach the let- 
ter only; — and from those who separate themselves to 
the work of the ministry, sensual, not having the Spirit ? 
Have you given them a faithful warning to come out 
from among them, and touch none of their unclean 
things ? Have you detected those false prophets and 
prophetesses, who come to us in sheep's clothing, en- 
deavoring to make us swallow their false revelations ? 
Indeed sir, the Word of God which stands against those 
who commit such things, ought to be enough to make 
every one fear to say, " Thus saith the Lord," unless he 
be sure of his calling. God says of such, "I have not 
sent them, yet they run, and prophesy a lie in my name ;" 
and he will destroy both the deceiver and the deceived. 

I know it is the custom of those who preach the let- 
ter only, and have not the Spirit, to take vengeance in- 
to their own hands, and bring forth their rancor and 
spleen in the pulpit; — in that very place where our 
Lord ought to be honored and his Holy Word revered; 
for God has said, " Vengeance is mine, I will repay." 

This custom is brought into the Church by the power 
and policy of Satan ; indeed, it is Satan in the man that 
does it, and it is a cowardly trick, and shows that 
they dare not attack on equal ground. 

This custom is used chiefly against the saints, when 
they find that the minister has not proved his calling, 



56 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

especially if out of sincere love to his soul, they give 
him a gentle warning of his unsafe standing before 
Godj and wish him by all possible means — by prayer 
and supplication, to make sure his calling. These 
warnings he will by no means endure ; but, as T said be- 
fore, will bring forth his rancor in the pulpit to fill their 
hearts with terror, if it were possible, and cause them 
to think they have committed the unpardonable sin, by 
endeavoring to instruct a man of his Cloth ; and if he 
cannot succeed in this, he will hold himself up to his 
hearers as a persecuted man. 

A man of God does not so ; but waits on his Divine 
Master for the word of his grace, and for power to dis- 
pense it. The word is put into his mouth, and wo 
mito him if he keep back any thing which God has 
given him to utter, either for correction, reproof, or ex- 
hortation. As the inferior officers in an army, wait on 
their General for the word of command, even so do 
these spiritual warriors act under the command of the 
Captain of their salvation, who rideth upon the white 
horse, and out of whose mouth goeth the sharp sword 
with two edges. 

The man who uses God's fan aright, will not win- 
now out the Lord's wheat, and retain the chaff, as too 
many do by turning the lame out of their way, because 
they have not skill to heal them ; and by driving out 
the poor in spirit, because they, by their importunities, 
become troublesome to these unskilful physicians. 

The man who uses God's fan aright, will fly ambigu- 
ous speeches and indirect words. ' He will boldly come 
forward, with " sound speech which cannot be con- 
demned," and say, Thou art the man that hast sirmed 
against Christ or his members. He will not give " A 
broad hint to Nobody," but he will give plain words, 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 57 

and faithful dealings to somebody, and that to his face, 
like the Apostle Paul when he withstood Peter for dis- 
simulation ; and Elymas the sorcerer, for endeavoring 
to turn away the deputy from the faith. 

Have you detected this nameless author, and en- 
deavored to convince him of his sin, that he may be re- 
covered out of the snare of the devil ? If indeed you 
do this, tribulation will follow you ; — such tribulation 
as shall turn to your account in the Great Day ; — such 
tribulation as the liOrd has left upon record for his faith- 
ful followers, and under which the Lord will bear up 
your soul, and give you peace and joy in believing ; 
and your faithful testimony shall not go unrewarded, 
for God rewards his own graces. If you do this, you 
will endanger your eyes and ears, if not your mouth 
and feet. 

The man that is intrusted with Christ's fan, will 
take care that the hypocrite reign not in his congrega- 
tion, lest the people be ensnared ; for where the hypo- 
crite reigns, Satan reigns in him, and he will drive out 
the flock of Christ, and bring in those who are like him- 
self — presumptuous sinners ; or else he will so contami- 
nate and corrupt the saints, that we cannot know them 
even by their speech. There are many other thinors 
which might be named that belong to the man who is 
intrusted with Christ's fan, or wind, or the Spirit ; but 
these must suffice. 

When our Lord arises out of his place, where he 
often hides himself, " he is like a refiner's fire, and like 
fuller's soap." He will purify his own priests that they 
may offer a pure offering ; and by the sore conflicts 
which they themselves have experienced, they know 
how to deal with the household of faith and give them 
a word in due season. But it often happens that God 



68 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

sends a dry wind, not to fan nor to cleanse ; such is 
that of which we read in Acts, xiii, 41 : — " Behold, ye 
despisers, and wonder, and perish ; for I work a work in 
your days, which ye shall in no wise believe, though a 
man declare it unto you. And again : " I also will choose 
their delusions, and bring their fears upon them; be- 
cause when I called, they would not hear, but chose 
those things in which I delighted not." Here let me in- 
quire. What greater evil can happen to a nation or to a 
people, than that which must come upon them when 
God sends his word for a witness only, and when the 
people are the more hardened in their hearts against 
the Lord by it. 

I now hasten to conclude, and tell you that God has 
appointed me to a certain work, though it is not to 
preach, for if there were no other reason, how could I 
preach without a mouth ? One part of that work is to 
write this letter, that you may search your own heart 
by the Scriptures of truth, and see if God has called 
you into the ministry, or if you have run into it of your 
own head ; and if you have done so, be assured it shall 
not be to your honor. 

There are some that come unto us with the doctrines 
of grace on their tongues, — with a pretended commis- 
sion to preach in Christ's name ; and it requires some 
degree of that gift of discerning of the spirits of which 
Paul speaks, to find them out ; for, if it were possible, 
they would deceive the very elect, yea, the Word says 
that we must not believe every spirit, but try the spirits, 
and how can we try them, but by the Word ? The 
Word is the touchstone in the hand of the Spirit, 
whereby a discerning eye finds out designing and sub- 
tle men. 

If God has sent you, I may not hide myself from 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 69 

you ; but if you have no commission from him, I may 
not join myself unto you, because in that case, you can 
only put out my eyes, if God does not take particular 
care of me. If you are a plant of the Lord's right-hand 
planting, after due consideration you will love me for 
my faithful dealing, and receive this as ''an excellent 
oil that shall not break your head." But if you have 
spoken lies in God's name, you will hate me for my 
faithful testimony ; and where hatred to a brother or a 
sister dwells, there the Lord dwells not; for "He that 
loveth not his brother, abideth in death." 

I do not hide my name because I fear persecution, I 
thank God he has prepared me for that ; for " All who 
will liv^e godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution ;" 
but it is hidden for the trial of faith, that God in all 
things may be glorified. I have this much to say ; — If 

that which is spoken and written of Mr. P , be a 

truth, his sins will go beforehand to Judgment ; and if 
what you have said, as it is reported,— that " God has 
sent you with a fan," be a falsehood, your sins will fol- 
low after. 

I now conclude, and subscribe myself, 

An Eye in the Mystical Body of Christ. 



1830. 
To Mr. — -- -. 

My Dear Friend, — 
I now intend to give you my thoughts on the con- 
tents of your last letter, as God shall enlighten and in- 
struct me. 



60 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

With regard to the law, I have but little to say ; for 
it would be the height of folly that you and I should 
contend about it. We may leave that for those who 
are bound in its shackles. 

Considering the length of time that we have been in 
a Christian profession of religion, you ought to be a fa- 
ther in Christ, and I a mother in Israel ; yea, we ought 
to be able to instruct the younger. Instead of this, you 
need to be instructed again what are the first principles 
of the oracles of God, seeing you are become one who 
has need of milk, and not of strong meat ; for it appears 
that you are not able to bear it. If you had been in the 
school of Christ, as long as you have been in a profes- 
sion, you would have risen in spiritual stature ; from a 
babe to a child — from a child to a young man — and 
from a young man, to a father in Christ ; but I perceive 
that this is not the case with you. 

I cannot think with you, that Mr. has entered 

into Martin Luther's writings to supply himself with 
matter for preaching and writing ; indeed I believe him 
to be better taught of God than those who shine in bor- 
rowed light, or who steal from the writings of others. 
Indeed, my dear friend, God will not permit his own 
priests to quote any of the sentences of other writers, 
unless the original author be named ; for he hateth 
robbery for burnt offering. And to confirm this, I 
know one who was in the furnace three days and three 
nights, without the least glimmer of light, for using 
two or three expressions from another's writings, with- 
out naming the author. I Avish Mr. 's enemies, 

who hold him up to their audience as a dangerous man, 
were as free from robbery as he is ; but it is a well 
known fact that many of them rob his writings for 
their sermons. I tell you the truth, I would not stand 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 61 

in the shoes of any one of those who rob the writings 
of others to supply themselves with matter for their 
sermons, and call themselves ministers of Christ. It 
shews that God has not sent them, if he had, he would 
have supplied them with "things new and old" to bring 
forth to his people. 

His writings concerning the law are the same as were 
those of the Apostles, and Martin Luther, and the other 
reformers. His writings testify it, and by them, " he, be- 
ing dead, yet speaketh." Whoever reads them with a 
desire for improvement, and without prejudice, will 
find the truth. But how can any person be clear in 
these truths, in those congregations where Christ is not 
in the minister ? And if Christ is not in him by 
his Spirit, Satan must ; there is no medium. And 
while we hear such preachers, or rather robbers, Satan, 
their master, casts a mist over the understanding; 
therefore, is it any wonder that we cannot grow in grace, 
while we sit in the smoke of the bottomless pit ? When 
a man preaches erroneous doctrine, he is easily found 
out ; but the greatest deceivers are the robbers of other 
people's writings ; and unless their congregations be 
great readers, they cannot see their deception. Their 
emptiness is known also when they have to deal with 
afflicted consciences ; they cannot tell what to do with 
these, and they are glad to get them out of their way. 
The golden oil goes not through the golden pipes by 
these men. Their sih^er trumpets of which they boast, 
give an uncertain sound, which hinders us from pre- 
paring as we ought for the battle ; yea, they often make 
us give our back to the enemy, and you know Mr. 
Bunyan says, " We have no armor for our back ;" and 
we ought to pursue the enemy to the gate. 

With regard to the man whom you now hear, I can- 

6 



62 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

not advise you ; I hope the Lord the Spirit will enable 
your eyes to see your teachers, and your ears to hear a 
word behind you when you turn to the right hand, or 
to the left. We are cautioned to look right on, and to 
ponder the path of our feet. The Lord give you this 
grace, and be your Counsellor and Guide, and cause you 
by his Spirit and the Word to try the spirits that you 
do hear ! If you do this with earnest and unceasing 
prayer, the Lord will not suffer you to be deceived. I 
have reason to praise him for ever for his care of me in 
this respect. 

You say, " You experience great joy on the Sabbath, 
which animates you through the week," yet I fear, by 
your writings, that you have not much to cause it. 

The text which you have named concerning the net 
being cast into the sea, is wrongly applied in our case. 
When the gospel trumpet is blown in city or country, it 
gathers together sinners of every kind. This is what Mr. 
Banyan calls, " The common call of a hen to her chick- 
ens," when she gives them nothing. The particular call 
of the gospel trumpet, gathers the elect out of this num- 
ber ; which we may see by comparing with this passage, 
the sower and his seed, and the tares sown among the 
wheat, which must both grow together until the har- 
vest, when God will send his angels, and sever the 
wicked from among the just. According to my judg- 
ment, this is the true sense of the passage which you 
have named. 

Nevertheless, the loss of the public ordinances of the 
house of God, is, and has been a great trial to me. The 
cxxxviith Psalm, the viith chapter of Micah, and the 
Lamentations of Jeremiah, nearly describe our situation; 
but my consolations are in God, who has promised to 
be a little Sanctuary to his people in all places where 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 63 

they shall come. Indeed I cannot venture out again, 
until I knoAV that God has visited his people by send- 
ing them pastors after his own heart. If we were to 
run after the ministry, as it is, after the many trials that 
we have had in connexion with it, I should fear the 
Lord would give us up to our own will ; and then we 
should be in danger of receiving the bad, and casting 
the good away ; for when we get into Satan's snare, as 
is the present system of religion, we know not where it 
will end. 

I would much rather worship God in my own house 
than go to the professing church, yet to describe our 
loneliness is not in my power. In the midst of a popu- 
lous city, we are " as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, 
as a besieged city." Days, months, and years roll over 
our heads, and leave us in the same situation. We 
make these sacrifices for our children's sake, as well as 
our own, that what instruction we do gain, may be from 
the fountainhead. We pass the Lord's day, in prayer, 
in reading his Word, and such authors as are approved 
of God and of righteous men ; and I tell you plainly 
that God is not unmindful of us, for we are his pri- 
soners. He often answers our petitions, and pours his 
word into my heart like a flood, and the oil of his grace 
is seldom stayed, until I have written eleven or twelve 
pages, which, at proper seasons, are read in the family. 

When I receive a letter on spiritual subjects, I am 
obliged to wait on God, that he may give me under- 
standing in the matter, and enable me to answer it with 
agreeable words, that cannot be condemned by. the ad- 
versary. And I never attempt to write until the Lord 
answers my prayers, and sends forth both matter and 
manner, and then I answer. Such letters are generally 
read in the family before they are sent away. I have 



64 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

not shunned to declare unto them every thing" that 
might prove for their good or edification, as it respects 
the professing church, and as it respects their education ; 
or that might be a caution to our sons against entering 
into God-dishonoring trades. All these things, and 
much more, have been fairly stated in our house. 

Time was when England sent out a Whitefield ; but 
now, they send us the refuse, and keep the best them- 
selves, if there be any best ; however, we do not stand 
in need of them, as our land produces a great many un- 
profitable ones. We have had nothing material to do 
with any of those ministers of whom I have sent you 
an account ; for their sins proclaim them : a much 
greater cause, which I shall not name at this time, keeps 
me out from among them. " Wo unto the world be- 
cause of offences !" Can we wonder at those words, 
" Offences must needs come ; but wo unto that man 
through whom they come !" I do not write these things 
to put you out of conceit of your minister, but do not 
think the world of liim, before he be proved. 

You have given a right definition of those words of 
David, " I am thine, save me." Jesus Christ is a com- 
plete Saviour. A believing view that we are interested 
in the covenant of Redemption, gives us a right to call 
God our feather. When troubles rise thick around us 
we claim this kindred, and we are sure to have sufficient 
cause to do so. Peter had when he was sinking, and 
he cried, " Lord, save, or I perish." His faith was small, 
but it was enough. When we first know for ourselves 
that our sins are pardoned through his blood, we only 
begin to believe, or to be saved. But when God brings 
us into strict discipline, to try us, and to purge our souls 
from some of those dregs which are yet left behind, and 
enters himself into a dark cloud, so that we lose sight 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 65 

of him by faith, it is then a most difficult matter to 
claim this kindred, and say, " I am thine, save me." 
We are more apt to conclude that all is lost, and that 
God has forsaken us. However, he does not leave us 
in this situation : he only hides himself for a while to 
make us cry the more unto him. Instead of this, we 
too often rebel, and think he deals hardly with us, as 
may be seen in the case of Job, Jeremiah, Jonah, and 
many others. God will take care that our faith shall 
be tried, that we ourselves may know if it is of the right 
kind ; — if it will stand the fiery test, when God hides 
his face ; — when all our friends forsake us ; — when ca- 
lamities at home, or abroad, bow down our spirits ; — 
when the true Church of Christ is hidden from us ; — 
when false brethren torment us, and true brethren turn 
away their faces ; — it is then, indeed, that we are shut 
up in prison, and none can open the door but Christ the 
Lord. 

These things will try our faith to the uttermost. 
However, I have not had so much of the hidings of 
God's face during the last seven years as many of his 
children have ; for the more bitterly the enemy opposes 
me, so much the greater have my consolations been in 
Christ. Thus he fits my back for the burden which he 
has appointed me to bear, by giving me that peace of 
God which passeth all understanding. 

You say, " Where there is a spiritual mind, it will 
bring forth spiritual fruit." True. Where there is a 
spiritual mind, there is the Spirit, otherwise, we could 
not call God our Father; for he that hath not the Spirit 
of Christ, is none of his. God dwells in his people by 
the Spirit, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father," or "Ah, 
Father." This cry is sure to come when we think we 
are just on the point of being swallowed up with some 

6* 



63 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

very great trouble, and then our deliverance is near at 
hand ; for at such times we cry with groanings which 
cannot be uttered, and say, with Jacob, " Thou hast 
promised to do me good, but behold here is nothing but 
trouble." You will find that Martin Luther handles 
this matter much better than I can, in the fourth chap- 
ter of his Commentary on the Galatians. How a few 
such deliverances as these, endear Christ to the soul ! 
Then we see our faith to be genuine, and our perseve- 
rance clear, because at the very time when our faith is 
so small that we carmbt perceive that we have any, be- 
ing, as it were, ready to be swallowed up with So great 
troubles; then Christ by his Spirit appears — owns his 
relationship — and sends deliverance. 

This is a s^lorious subject to me, you could not have 
chosen a better. By such things it is that our fruit 
abounds ; — that we grow in ofracCj and knowledge, and 
experience, and become, I hope, someAvhat useful in our 
families. In the same manner, by some fiery trial or 
other, God will cause us to prove our joys, that we our- 
selves may know if our joys proceed from the assur- 
ance that God is ours, — that Christ is ours ; if our 
joys proceed from the assurance that our sins are par- 
doned, — that our joy is the joy of the Holy Ghost, and 
the peace of God which passeth all understanding ; for 
the soul fears every joy short of this. 

I once knew a man who used to drink a little spirits 
at night for his health's sake; but he left ofif that prac- 
tice, lest he should mistake fancied joys, for real. This 
is another fruit of the Spirit, whereby we grow more in 
knovv'-ledge, and are better able to detect false joys in 
others. By these things we see how God carries on 
the work in our souls ; and in every future trial we 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 67 

gain a greater confidence in him, and see more plainly 
our sonship. 

The children of God are leavened with pride as 
much as with any other vice, therefore God will bring 
them into so great straits, and they will see themselves 
so loathsome, that, like Job, their own clothes will ab- 
hor them. And this he does to humble them, and 
cause them to sit at his feet clothed with true humility. 
Patience also will be tried, and I wish I had this grace 
more in exercise, as I too often murmur at our lonely 
situation. However, murmuring brings no good to my 
soul, for I know I must bear it, until God make it 
otherwise. We must not do evil that good may come, 
nor go to the Egyptians for help. 

Many other things might be named ; but I shall con- 
tent myself with mentioning one more evil which it is 
our wisdom to avoid, and say, Abba, Father, save us 
from a corrupt ministry, and from the corrupted mem- 
bers of their churches, who train up their children in 
all the follies, and vanities of this wicked world, — such 
as music, dancing, revelling, parties, balls, theatres, and 
all vain amusements. If we say unto them. Why do 
you suffer such things in your children ? God has 
called us to holiness of heart and life, and we must 
tram them up in his grace. They retort, " Our chil- 
dren are not yet called by divine grace, and we cannot 
give it them." If we say. But how can you pray for 
them, while at the same time you indulge them in 
those evils which God hates ? They answer, " God 
can call them to repentance, and our prayers cannot 
prevail with him before his own time." These words 
are true in their proper place, but how badly they are 
applied in this case, I leave you to judge. All these 
things are the fruits of a corrupt ministry. 



I 



68 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

Might not the Lord say unto such parents, if indeed 
they do pray for their children, (which to me is doubt- 
ful.) Wherefore do you cry unto me? While your 
children were young and tender, I gave you authority il 
over them to keep them within due bounds, and to 
crop those pernicious buds when they began to shoot ; ij 
which authority you have foolishly let go out of your ' 
hands, and these evils have now grown to so great a 
height, that you cry unto me for help. Might not 
the Lord justly say unto you. Cleanse your hearts 
from their filthiness. Put away these abominations 
from your houses. Take away these stumbling-blocks 
of your iniquity. "If I be a Father, where is my 
honor ? If I be a Master, where is my fear ?" 

By these things which abound in New York, among 
those who wish to be called the children of believers, 
and have been trained up from their infancy under the j| 
present ministry, do you not think that both parents 
and children have swallowed the bad, and thrown the 
good away ? Indeed, my friend, it is not so easy as 
you may imagine, to retain the good, and cast the bad 
away. I knov/ our Lord says that we must not do as 
the proud Pharisees do, because they devour widows' 
houses, and for a pretence make long prayers. But he 
tells us that when they sit in Moses' seat to teach, we 
must do as they say. Yea, I fully believe, from my 
own acquaintance with the human heart, that by being 
much with them, we should be more likely to do as 
they do. 

T now conclude with the words of David : " How 
amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! My 
soul longeth, yea. even fainteth, for the courts of the 
Lord." The soarrows and swallows have greater 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 69 

privileges than we, for we are driven out from the 
house of God by the corruptions that are in it. 
Your affectionate Friend, and Sister in Christ, 

A. C. 



New York, 1830. 



To Mr. . 



My Dear Friend, — 

I hope I shall not tire you with my frequent com- 
munications, for, as the oil of divine grace is poured 
into my heart, it is some relief for me to write. 

It is also a great blessing when we are led by the 
hand of God to the discovery of wolves in sheep's 
clothing. And v/hen God causes us to see the experi- 
ence of some other of his favored servants, who have 
been led in the same way, it refreshes our bowels in 
the Lord ; it lifts up the hands that hang down, and 
strengthens the feeble knees. I hope ever to acknow- 
ledge such as brethren in Christ, and not to be ashamed 
of my Lord in any of his members. 

I wish you could get a sight of Mr. H n's troubles 

with Butler, L d, <fec. He acted like a true shep- 
herd, whose eyes were ever open, to keep his flock, if 
possible, from the paths of the destroyer. He was dili- 
gent like Paul, when he exposed the false apostles, and 
deceitful workers, warning Timothy to beware of 
different characters. I have no doubt many of his peo- 
ple feel the loss of him severely. When we read au- 
thors, in and by whom we find that God speaks, they 
leave a sweet savor to the believing soul ; but when 



70 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

we read those authors who have learned their doctrine 
from the precepts of men. or from what they may have 
gained by speculation and robbery, the word falls like 
a dead letter. And how should it be otherwise ? — > 
Where there is no communion with God, there can be 
no communication from God to their own hearts, nor 
to the hearts of others. They too, are very unskilful in 
their application of the word ; often sending the promises 
to the wicked and presumptuous, and the threatenings 
to the children of God. because they know nothing 
but by speculation. 

I had almost forgotten your observation on what the 
Apostle Paul says, that we ought not to forget to assem- 
ble ourselves together, as the manner of some is, (fee. 
If you say that, because we have separated ourselves 
from the Apostate Protestant Church, it is wrongly 
applied in our case. My soul desires above all things 
to congregate with God's people ; but they whom we 
have esteemed as brethren in Christ, all shun us, be- 
cause we will not run with the multitude ; for we are 
well aware that no good to the soul can be obtained 
among them. AYe do indeed assemble ourselves to- 
gether in our own house, three times on the Lord's 
dav. to read his Word, and select authors, while no eye 
sees us but the eye of God. Here we have none to 
mock us on account of our poverty of speech, nor be- 
cause we will not give that honor to Satan which be- 
longs to God alone. 

I will give you one instance of a truly Christian man 
who frequently calls on us, and speaks of the various 
trials that he meets with, together with the hidings of 
God's face, while he is bowed down in spirit, and 
straitened in circumstances. He complains of the dead- 
ness of the minister, and of the congregation to which 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 71 

he belongs. I have said to him. Why do you stay 
among them ? It would be better for you to seek the 
Lord with your family, in your own house, until you 
can bring others into the same mind. Then your lit- 
tle company will increase, and God will be among you, 
seeing you have the Scriptures and sound authors, who 
have felt and handled the Word of life. If you were 
to do this, you would find your soul to grow in grace 
and knowledge ; for God will not meet with you in 
those assemblies which his soul hateth, unless it be to 
show you your folly, and to call you out from among 
them. He replied, " You are certainly wrong, — you 
ought to go out to hear ;" — and he named several minis- 
ters of whom he had heard a good report. With this 
advice he left us. 

And must I follow his advice, and get my soul 
bowed down in so burdened a manner as his is ? No, 
never. I will never give the devil another such chance 
as he has already had, to blind my eyes, and shut my 
mouth, and stop my ears. 

You say that, " it is a bad example to the rising gene- 
ration." I answer, If you buy a joint of meat, and 
after it is dressed, it proves to be so tainted that you 
cannot eat it yourself, will you force your children to 
eat it ? No, this would be against nature. You will 
say. There they can hear at least the law. True ; 
but they cannot hear it so lawfully handled as they 
can at home. I am speaking now of believing parents, 
who ought to know how to instruct their children. 

Again, you say, " If all people were of your opinion, 
how would places of worship be kept open ?" With 
that I have nothing to do. Why God permits Satan 
to imitate him, must be left entirely to himself There 
was always a false church, and a true one. All the 



72 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

time that God had his pure worshippers among the 
Jews, — the devil had his church amop.g the Gentiles ; 
but now God has his true worshippers among Chris- 
tians. — the devil has his amonor Antichristians, <fcc. 
Such are all those who have not the Spirit, let them 
profess what they may. 

Satan is not wanting in strataofem now ; — he can 
make a show of holiness answer his purpose in one 
way : and they who preach truth in the letter, as it is 
called, if they have not the Spirit, answer his purpose 
in another way. The former deceives, because it is 
a show of holiness, while there is none in reality ; and 
the latter deceive because they rest in the letter, and 
thus bring their votaries to presume upon God, al- 
though they have not the Spirit. And whatever peo- 
ple may say to the contrary, I know it is not profitable 
for believers to hear such, for fear of contamination ; — 
but what good this kind of assemblies may do to unbe- 
lievers, by informinof their understanding in some 
thinofs, T will not say, nor have I any further business 
with it. It is not my place to tell them to shut up 
their doors, as I know that Antichrist must reign until 
the Lord shall destroy him with the brightness of his 
cominof. Paul was speaidng to believers when he gave 
the admonition ; — he did not tell them to assemble with 
false apostles ; — nor with deceitful workers ; — nor with 
any brother that walketh disorderly — nor with one that 
is an heretic : but to reject them. So doth Christ ad- 
monish us to beware of false prophets who come unto 
us in sheep's clothing ; in an outward garb of holiness ; 
or in a presumptuous faith without grace in the heart. 

I am far from condemninof all places of worship. I 
only dislike those places where Christ is not ; and I am 
searching to find out in what place of worship Christ 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 73 

is. You will say to me, How can that be true, while 
you go no where ? I do not search by going out ; if I 
were to do that, I should fear that Satan would again 
take advantage of my credulity. A child that has 
been burned, will use all diligence to escape the fire. 
I search by prayer and supplication in the Spirit, night 
and day ; and if there be such a place in New York, 1 
shall be sure to find it ; for the prayer of faith must 
prevail. 

Neither do I despise all ministers ; on the contrary, 
I esteem those in whom Christ dwells by his Spirit, 
very highly in love for their work's sake. These are 
comparable to oxen which tread out the corn, and to 
fishers who cast their nets into the sea, and gather 
fishes of every kind ; for, by their searching doctrine, — 
they try and prove their hearers ; and as fishers cast 
away their bad fish, so do they cause those who cannot 
endure sound doctrine, to flee from them, as they fled 
from Christ in the days of his flesh. 

Such ministers are comparable to sowers, who sow 
the precious seed of the gospel ; and how many sorts 
of hearers there are, you may read in the parable. 

The true minister is comparable to ploughers who 
plough up the follow ground of the heart ; and his God 
instructs him when to throw in the seed with discretion. 
He will watch over the convicted sinner, and see if by 
any means, he can prove his convictions to be the gen- 
uine fruit of the Spirit, before he puts in the precious 
seed. Indeed, this is always his aim, though he is 
sometimes mistaken ; but when he thinks it is the pro- 
per time, " he throws in the fitches, scatters the cum- 
min, and casts in the principal wheat, and the appointed 
barley, and rye in their place." Isa. xxviii. 25. Then, 
like a careful husbandman, instructed of his God, he 

7 



74 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

watches over the seed sown, lest the birds of the air 
should eat it ; — lest wolves should come and worry the 
sheep ; — and lest the sly and subtle fox should mar the 
vine branches of the Lord's right-hand planting. 

All these things are very significant, when they are 
in some able hand ; but I can only touch them, in order 
to stimulate 3^ou to search in good earnest, that you 
may see what is meant by the wolf, the thief, and the 
fox, and what kind of enemies they are that are in the 
Lord's household. The Lord will not withhold any 
necessary thing which is asked in faith; especially, as 
you say you have the presence of God on his day, which 
animates you through the week. I should think that 
where the presence of the Lord is, there is liberty of 
access to him, and communion with him ; and if we 
have not these, we may rest assured that some of those 
subtle foxes, wolves, or thieves, have been too busy with 
us ; and, instead of nursing us with the sincere milk 
of the Word, they have infused some of their poisons, 
which have exceedingly hindered our growth. There- 
fore, there is much for us to fear, thouo-h we are saved 
with an everlasting salvation. 

If we heedlessly trust to this kind of enemies, we 
shall have all our old a:round to 20 over no-ain, and so 
lay again the foundation of repentance. These enemies 
do us more harm thasi lions or tig-ers, because they do 
it when we cannot perceive it. Briars and tliorris are 
an immoderate care for the things of this life. Lions 
and tigers are those who rise up against the true ser- 
vants of Christ, after they have given a faithful testi- 
mony of his name, which they cannot endure, as in the 
case of Stephen, Paul, and many others. These are 
not the worst enemies that the Church ever had ; for 
they do not drive us from the Lord, but to him ; while 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 75 

the sly and subtle fox, wolf, and thief, drive our hearts 
from God, by beclouding our understand insf, and black- 
ening the character of God's faithful laborers. These, 
by their arts, eat into our flesh, as the moth eats into a 
garment, — unperceived, until we hold it up to the light. 
Thus the light of God's Word discovers those who 
have been been taught by them, and the wo will be to 
that man throui^-h whom such offences come. 

God compares tfiose persons who follow them, to the 
wild ass of the wilderness, which snuffeth up the wind 
at her pleasure; — and to a swift dromedary traversing 
her ways. Yea, they are compared to a woman for- 
saking the guide of her youth, and going after other 
lovers, while they heap to themselves teachers having 
itching ears. But God will reject our false confidences, 
and we shall not prosper in them. 

" Pharisaic zeal, and Antinomian security," says 
Mr. Hart, "are the two engines of Satan, with which 
he grinds the Church in all ages, as betwixt the upper 
and the nether millstone. The space between them is 
much narrower and harder to find than most men 
imagine. It is the path which the vulture's eye hath 
not seen ; and none can show it us but by the Holy 
Ghost. Here let no one trust the directions of his own 
heart, or of any other man ; lest by being warned to 
shun the one, he be dashed against the other. The 
distinction is too fine for man to discern ; therefore, let 
the Christian ask direction of his God." Then he adds, 
"These two hideous monsters continually worry and 
perplex my soul : nor is the former, though appearing 
in a holier shape, one whit less, but, if possible, more 
odious to me than the latter." 

These words of Mr. Hart, I admired before I experi- 
enced the truth of them, and now I admire them much 



76 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

more ; for both of these monsters, when they become 
teachers, leave the souls of their hearers barren ; and 
imless we do in ^ood earnest ask counsel of God, we 
shall be sure of being foundered by one or the other. 
I speak from experience, having tasted of that bitter 
cup. My eyes have seen, and my hands have handled 
these monstrous thiijo-s. 

After having wearied myself out with Pharisaic zeal, 
I was so pestered by those who had a presumptuous 
faith, which brought forth no spiritual fruit unto God 
nor man, that 1 almost wished myself out of existence. 

By the hand of God upon me, I have given these men 
a faithful warning, and by so doing, have gamed to my- 
self a blot, as it is written : " He that reproveth a 
scorner getteth to himself a blot." And again ; " He 
that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favor 
than he that flattereth Avith the tongue." This favor, I 
believe, is to be found with God only ; but from self-sent 
teachers, we expect no more than scorn and contempt 
for onr faithfulness to them. Indeed, the fear of man 
brouo^ht so great a snare upon my soul, and kept me in 
bondage to them so long, that T became weary. How- 
ever, when Christ, by his Spirit, arose in me, and gave 
me courage to write, and warn them of their state, they 
fled from us, and we have not been troubled with them 
since. There are but few, if any, at this day, who will 
receive a faithful warning "as an excellent oil, that 
shall not break their head," from one who writes under 
the immediate operations of the Holy Spirit of God ; 
yet those who will receive it, shall find favor with God. 

I did not intend to write so long a letter, and had, as 
I thought, concluded before ; but as fresh matter comes 
to my mind, I am compelled to go on, though I do little 
else than fret and quarrel with the Almighty about it, 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 77 

and in so doing, I get my matter out of the fire. " He 
is of one mind, and what his soul desireth, that he 
doeth." When these fits of unbelief come on, through 
seeing, as I think, all things make against me ; then iu 
a mopish mood, I argue thus : — To wiiat purpose do I 
write, if thou, O Most High God ! wilt not attend thy 
word with power? Thou hast caused me to write 
many letters by thy power and iufiuence, and hast 
marked the places where they were to go ; and thou 
knowest that some of those people to whom I have 
sent them, instead of answering me as they ought, have 
taken their opportunity, in an indirect maimer, to throw 
the same in my teeth ; and it seems plain to me, that 
if an angel from Heaven were to write, their ears would 
be shut against thy truth. Then I cry out as Moses 
of old did, " If thou deal thus with me, take me to thy- 
self, that I may not see my wretchedness." 

In this murmuring mood I often go on for days to- 
gether, until the Lord brings me to my right mind, and 
comforts me with Zion's watchword : " Fear not." "Be 
strong and of good courage." " Underneath are the 
everlasting arms." Then i begin to write again, know- 
ing that the Lord has lighted his candle in my heart, 
which must not be put under a bushel, but on a candle- 
stick, to give light to all that are in the house. At 
such times he makes me willing to suffer for his truth's 
sake, and to press forward through evil or good report, 
for I know that my work is with my God, and my re- 
ward also. 

But this frame of resignation does not last long. — I 
soon begin to lose my confidence, and then impatience 
brings up the rear in some such words as these : — O 
my Lord ! thou givest mc great rejoicing, in hope that 

7* 



78 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

thou wilt show me thy people, who worship thee in 
spirit and in truth, with whom we can be of one heart, 
one soul, and one judgment ; and then thou hidest thy 
face, and hope flies away." In this state I remain, un- 
til I am aroused by another of Zion's watchwords: 
" Patience must have her perfect work, that ye may be 
perfect and entire, lacking nothing.'" By such words 
my hands are strengthened, and I write again, until I 
sink again into despondency. " Hope deferred maketh 
the heart sick ; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree 
of life." 

This letter may truly be called, " The burden of the 
word of the Lord ;"' for it has been a sore burden for 
me to write, though I constantly pray to God to give 
such an answer to your letter as he will own and bless, 
not only to your soul, but to ours also. Simply enough 
is it written ; nevertheless, it is the truth, — such 
truth as is gained by heart-felt experience and union to 
Christ my Livinsf Head ; who. since the time he began 
to teach, and to bring me out of the professing church, 
has never left me to wander in the dark lonsf too-ether : 
nor does he hide his face more than three days at a 
time, and he often speaks into my soul in communion, 
as one friend does to another. Yet I know that none 
can separate themselves from different ministers, and 
other characters, until God open their eyes to see. and 
their ears to hear : and he whose office it is to lead the 
feet of his saints from crooked paths, refiiseth not the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask in good earnest. 

The children of God have very severe conflicts and 
troubles, which are only known to God and their own 
souls. To speak of them to carnal or presumptuous 
professors, is the sure way to increase them ; therefore 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 



they carry their complaints to God only, who will 
surely notice them though he bear long with them. 
Your affectionate Friend, and Sister in Christ. 

A. C. 



\ 



New York, 1831. 
To the Same. 

My Dear Friend, — 

I AM glad to find you so happy in the contemplation 
of the perfections of God. When it is so well with 
thee, remember me, or as Paul the Apostle says, 
" Remember my bonds :" for I do know that I am 
in bonds for the true gospel's sake. 

The perfections of God in the glorious plan of Re- 
demption, are a large field of wonder, as well as 
enjoyment, to every one who has his senses exercised 
therein in a right way, and very far transcends our 
utmost thoughts. 

I would fain live above the world, and dwell 
for ever on the goodness of God in Christ Jesus, as it re- 
gards our salvation ; but my thoughts are too often fet- 
tered and chained down to earth, and the things of 
flesh and sense. I often cry out with Jeremiah, " Wo 
is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of 
strife and contention to the whole earth." This cross, 
which God has sent to humble me, njakes rne fret 
amazino^ly ; and though I have been used to it for the 
last eight years, yet I cannot accustom myself to take it 
patiently. My heart often rises in rebellion against my 
Maker, and here is another large field for me to 



80 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

look into; — the evils of my own heart, which I can 
never fully comprehend. He has caused me to under- 
stand many things, of which thousands, and I may say 
millions of professors are ignorant. Bat m addition to 
this, he has given me a thorn in my flesh, the 
messenger of Satan to buffet me. lest my proud spirit 
should be exalted above measure. I have earnestly 
entreated him to take it away, but in vam. I can get no 
other answer than the Apostle did; — "My grace is 
sufficient for thee :" for tlie grace of God, in such cases, 
ouofht to be sufficient for us in our wars with the 
world, the flesh, and the devil. I wish I could say as 
Paul did ; •• Most gladly then I glory in infirmities, 
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'" 

I often wish I could give a better account of the grace 
of patience ; but I well know, " It is of the Lord's mer- 
cies that I am not consumed, because his compassions 
fail not.'' In the strength of Christ, I can submit and 
do all with patience ; but witliout his strength, I can 
do nothing. Let the proud boasting Pharisee, or those 
who never transgress the commandments, as they falsely 
suppose, come to the tried soul, and see his sharp con- 
flicts, and hear his heart-rending sig-hs, and his mur- 
muring and fretting, when the hand of God appears 
against him, and he will learn that it is not so easy a 
thing to keep the commandments : for, like Jonah, we 
are more apt to run away from God. than to submit our- 
selves unto him. I mio^ht enlarg^e here on the evils of 
the human heart, and the dreadful rebellion of our 
stubborn will, but I forbear; for I know there is too 
often great pride in all this seeming humility. 

When any, under the pretence of humility, exalt 
Christ, and lay the creature low, as they say, — let any 
thing cross their own will, or let a sincere man give 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 81 

them a faithful warning, because he sees it his indis- 
pensable duty so to do, we shall then see how deep 
their humility is; for they will show themselves as 
proud as Lucifer, and their pretended humility will 
vanish into air, and there is no forgiveness for these 
presuming brethren under the sun. But this kind 
of anger cannot hurt us ; for by it our eyes can see our 
teachers, which is a blessed thing for us, because 
we may then seek the Lord where we know he is to be 
found, and shun those proud unhumbled teachers, 
whose great professions of self-abasement deceive the 
simple and unwary. 

To the former accounts which I have given you of 
fruitless teachers, I will add another. In the spring 
of 1831, an Englishman, who had amassed a fortune in 
Somersetshire, in the silk manufacture, came into this 
country, with the view of settling his sons in some kind 
of business ; but having hitherto failed in his object, he 
has become weary of waiting, and is determined to go 
back in the spring. 

With this man we became acquainted, and scarcely a 
day passed but he was at our house. I thought he 
spoke very well upon religious subjects. In the course 
of a little time, we found that he had been in the habit 
of preaching in the villages in England. He wished to 
live in the country, that he might do the same here, 
and felt very uncomfortable because he could not. We 
quizzed him at different times, that we might know 
what his opinions were concerning the profession of 
the present day ; and what he thought of so many be- 
ing sent out under the pretence of evangelizing the 
world. He answered, " t think it is a great work, and 
likely to bring to pass that which is predicted, that the 
knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth, as the 



92 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

waters cover the great deep." I thought, by his answer, 
he was very blind ; however, as you say, I passed it over. 

A little time after, he came in and said that " he should 
be glad to lay down his life, if it Avere the will of God." 
I said to him, Perhaps, sir, if the Lord were to put you 
to the trial, you would not feel so willing to depart and 
leave your children unsettled. " Why," said he, " to 
abide in the flesh would be more needful for them." I 
asked him if he was not sometimes low and dejected in 
soul. He said, " he was not ;" and further added, that 
" he believed he was one of those whom God had 
blessed." I thought him a good man, but I won- 
dered that he should be so blind concerning the great 
shew of religion that is now going on. I have since 
thought that he had so much to say to us, to try us, and 
see if we would not endeavor to set him up as a teacher, 
or preacher. If those were his thoughts, he came to 
the wrong house. It was not likely that we should be 
the means of setting up another unproved minister, be- 
fore the wounds which we had received from the last 
one were healed; therefore, we never asked him to 
preach. 

Many people speak very fair and plausibly, but we 
cannot know love or hatred by all that is before us, and 
Solomon says. " Better is the end of a thing than the 
beginning," in a case like this. " He that is first in his 
own cause seemeth just ; but his neighbor cometh and 
searcheth him." Our God is that neighbor, who, 
when he begins to teach his people, will continue, 
and will keep them from that wicked power that lieth 
in wait to deceive. 

God opened our eyes. This man was a drunkard. 
My husband has since seen him so intoxicated at his 
own house, that he nearly fell on the floor. He was 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. «0 

sick at the stomach, and incapable of conversation. His 
wife and daughters looked stranorely at each other, and 
his sons laughed. One of them accompanied my hus- 
band to the door, and said to him, " The old man has 
taken too much." By the appearance of things, this 
man loves brandy too well. He has never called at our 
house since, and that has saved us the trouble of 
shaking him off. I think he had better return to his 
own country, for the Americans are too particular to 
countenance drinking parsons. 

I have heard another of that tribe, whom you know 
as well as I do, say, that he disliked the American cus- 
tom of not handing spirits, because there was no glass 
of spirits handed to him when he preached in New 
York. He is since dead. He was turned out from his 
congregation, because he was observed to stagger, and 
walk as if he were intoxicated. Here I will just 
observe, that it is a very bad practice in the old country, 
to hand a glass of spirits to a man as soon as he 
has done preaching. This will, if he be not well aware, 
bring him into the accursed practice of drinking. 

I am well assured, that if a man is called by the 
Spirit of God to preach the gospel, he will be strong 
enouofh without the use o^ ardent spirits. How can the 
Lord be the streng-th of his ministers, if they fly from 
him to the bottle and glass? By the strength of 
ardent spirits no man can prevail. God's ministers are 
strengthened by the influence and power of his Spirit, 
and the '' Strength of Israel cannot lie." The Word of 
the Lord is strength to the upright, when it is clothed 
with power, and in it they go from strength to strength. 
The Word of the Lord in the soul strengthens more 
than meat or drink ; and the desires of the saints are to 
be fed with it more and more. 



84 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

I have this to say concerning the subject in hand : Let 
those who preach soberness to the people, take care that 
they themselves be temperate in all things ; and let 
those who would set the whoremonger and adulterer 
right, take care that they themselves be cleansed from 
spiritual adulteries ; in departins: from the Living God, 
and flying to the bottle and glass for strength to tread 
down the poor and needy, only because they have 
spoken right things; and in wresting judgment from 
them with lying words, and oppressive actions. When 
these beams are out of their own eyes, they will see 
more clearly to cast out the mote from the eyes of 
others. 

In the Law of Moses, it was made a statute for ever, 
that the priests should not drink wine when they 
entered into the Sanctuary ; and though Paul allows 
Timothy to use a little wine, it is not to be supposed 
that he used any when he entered into the Sanctuary ; 
but rather, that he chose times more convenient, be- 
cause he certainly knew that the letter of the Scriptures 
was against that practice. Are we stronger to withstand 
temptation under the New Testament dispensation? 
By no means. The man of God is not forbidden to 
drink wine ; but he will choose a proper time, and on 
no account take any, when, or before he enters the 
house where his God ought to be worshipped in sin- 
cerity and truth. 

I have had considerable controversy with some of 
these Leviathans, who have let fly their arrows at me 
both by their preaching and writing. But the 
Daughter of Zion can laugh them to scorn ; — she can 
shake her head at them and say. They cannot 
touch me, for my God has fenced me with iron. I 
know we must not rise up against any of these Levia- 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 85 

thans, until God command us ; and when that is the 
case, we shall have sufficient strength, and sound words 
which cannot be condemned. 

Where are ye now who once mourned the emanci- 
pation of the Roman Catholic Church, as a dreadful and fa- 
tal calamity? Are ye all asleep? The anticipation of 
their liberty, at one time, was a subject of great sorrow ; 
however, I hear of no sorrow now it is granted, but 
rather rejoicing. Is that power no longer dreaded ? Are 
Protestants so much like them that they desire an 
alliance? Have the people striken hands with the 
Mother of Harlots ? Are Cal vinists, Arminians, Papists, 
(fee, (fee, all joined together in one social band ? Does 
religious candor bring into friendship the enemies of 
God ? Has our Lord Jesus Christ ceased to ride upon 
his white horse, and laid aside his sword with two 
edges? Arise! and shake yourselves from the dust 
and mist of the darkened atmosphere ! Do you not see 
how the land is darkened with this false light? Are 
the saints all blind, or hidden in holes ? Is there not one 
to sympathize with me ? The trumpet has been blown, 
yet no one will hear. The Lord God has spoken, yet 
the people will not hearken ; but still persist in following 
their blind leaders, who corrupt the Word of God, and 
cast a mist of darkness over their eyes, and cause them 
to grope after the truth, as the blind at noon-day, where 
it is not to be found. 

How can men grow up into Christ in all things un- 
der corrupt teachers? And they who suppose they 
can, and that it is in their power to retain the good and 
cast the bad away, are deceived. This is nothing but 
fleshly confidence, which caused Peter much sorrow 
of heart, and so it will every one. God strips his chil- 

8 



86 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

dren from this fleshly confidence, and so he will you ; 
and this work of stripping, you will not like. 

I have not been out to hear a preacher for five or six 
years ; and yet. by the grace of God, I have grown in 
knowledge more than you. Not that kind of know- 
ledge that puffeth up ; but that which is useful for 
our edification and building up in Christ. I tell you 
this as a faithful friend, and not through pride or osten- 
tation ; for, whenever I attempt to rise in my own 
estimation, the thorn in my flesh pulls me down, and 
God has placed it there for that intent, — to keep me 
on a proper level. If a man is afraid of the plague or 
pestilence, will he enter into infected houses ? And 
what houses are more infected with the spiritual plague, 
than those are where Christ is not by his Spirit ? Our 
call from God is, to come out from among them, and 
touch none of their unclean things. " Can two walk 
together except they be agreed ?" It is the privilege of 
the children of God to grow from one degree of grace 
to another, until they become perfect men in Christ, — I 
do not mean perfect in the flesh, but to rise by degrees^ 
from babes to children, — and from children to young 
men and fathers ; for be assured, you can never be a 
spiritual father until you arrive at a father's estate. 

My dear friend, do not trouble yourself about the loss 
of your fleshly relations ; you stand not alone in this 
thing, as you may see in Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, {fee. 
If you had not this trouble, you would lose one mark 
of your Christianity. If we are deprived of the friend- 
ship of relations and Christian friends in this life, it will 
be more than made up to us in the world to come. 
Truth written upon the heart with the finger of God, 
must not fear the cross ; but take it up and follow the 
Lord, notwithstanding the loss of friends, relations, or 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 87 

Christian brethren and sisters. Yea, it will choose im- 
prisonment or death, rather than yield to lies and false- 
hood. 

Where is now the Christian heroic spirit which 
reigned in our reformers ? They yielded their bodies 
to the honor of their Lord, rather than trample upon his 
truth. They, as second causes, have gained for us 
privileges, which they themselves could not possess in 
safety. Were they here now, we should have fellow- 
helpers. — They would strengthen our hands. 

Many persons think that because the power of the 
Pope is lessened, there is no danger ; but that which 
is growing up in the Protestant Church, is making rapid 
strides to become as wicked a power as that of the 
Pope ; and the end will prove it so to be. 

I must now conclude, wishing you every blessing in 
time and in eternity. 

Your affectionate Friend, and Sister in Christ, 

A. C. 



New York, August 1st, 1832. 
To the Same. 

My Dear Friend, 

I feel myself in duty bound to God, and to you, to 
write one more letter, which, it is probable, will be the 
last you will ever receive from me on spiritual subjects. 
I have not a gleam of hope that you will ever pay at- 
tention to the things which I am now about to write. 

I received your letter, August 1st, and I am filled 
with sorrow that you should take what E have written 
in evil part, and say that I have spent so much time 



88 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

and paper to proclaim my liberty from the law. I can- 
not think you believe what you assert. I thank God 
he has written his law upon my heart, thouo^h I wish 
to keep it out of my conscience, knowing that as a 
covenant of works, I cannot be saved by it. I will not 
keep you in suspense. I pray you hear me patiently, 
for I shall not trouble you ag^ain. 

Have not I written that you might take timely warn- 
ing, and not run into the ministry, unprepared, and un- 
called of God ? My suspicions were but too well 
founded. You could not have given me a greater blow, 
than to inform me that you had mounted the pulpit. 
You make your boast of the law, but you have studied 
it to little purpose. The law has not been your rule. 
Do, for Christ's sake, read over again the viiith chapter 
of Leviticus, and the xxist, from the 16th verse to the 
end ; — also the iiid of Ezekiel, and the xvith of Num- 
bers ; and pray that God may open your eyes to see 
your own unfitness, at present, for the ministry ; for, 
while God is with me, I can prove it. 

The outlines of the sermon that you sent me, are 
good as far as they go, but where is the connexion ? 
The Word of truth must be rightly divided, that not 
only they whom you call sinners, may have their por- 
tion, but that sinners in Zion may also have theirs. 
However, you do not believe that there is so awful a 
departure from the fiith, then how ciin you sound the 
alarm? You may preach Christ and his attributes for 
ever, but it is doing the Lord's work by halves, as the 
present system is. It is written in Jeremiah : " Cursed 
be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently." 
Have you communion with God ? I dare not say you 
have ; and if you have not, how can you be as God's 
mouth to the people 1 



J 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 89 

If those words which you mention, were impressed 
u^on your mind, — " Pray not for this people," how is it 
that you acted contrary to them, and brought so many 
troubles upon yourself by joining that people ? This 
shows that you are blind in your own experience, and 
that your path is not made straight. 

The deplorable account which you have given of the 
church and ministry at P , and after all, your ac- 
knowledgement that you are in fault, plainly show 
that you are lame in your walk. If, in the ceremonial 
law, God refused the lame, and the blind, or any thing 
that had a blemish, for sacrifice, — neither v/ill he permit 
the blind, nor the lame, nor any one who has a blemish, 
to officiate as priest to offer the bread of his God. Have 
you considered what affinity there is between the 
Jewish sacrifices, and the sacrifice of Christ? And do 
you think that our most blessed Lord is less particu- 
lar now in his ministers than he was then? Do you 
think that the church at the present day, (dissenters I 
mean,) is any better than the church of the Jews was, 
when the Lord was upon the eartli ? If you do, you 
are blind in that also. Do you preach the same doc- 
trine as he did to the Scribes and Pharisees, to search 
them, and prove them, and show them their rotteu 
rigliteousness ? If you do, the children of God will 
cleave vmto you, but others will gnash upon you with 
their teeth. 

The law and the gospel both agree, — The law says, 
" Thou shalt in anywise rebuke tliy neighbor, and not 
suffer sin upon fiim." — The gospel says, '* Rebuke them 
sharply ; that they may be sound in the f lith." The 
two himdred and fifty men who offered incense in the 
wilderness, thinking themselves competent for the 
priest's office, were consumed by fire from the Lord for 



90 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

assuming it. And Paul says, " No man taketh that 
honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
Aaron." And though we look for no such calls as Moses, 
Aaron, and the other Apostles had, yet all must have 
the inward witness of the Spirit, more or less, accord- 
ing to the measure which God is pleased to give. They 
must have their eyes open, to see the evils that have 
crept into the church ; — they must bear a faithful testi- 
mony against them through all opposition ; — they 
must be girded with the armor of God ; — and the word 
from their lips must separate between the righteous 
and the wicked, and make a proper distinction between 
a real saint and a hypocrite. 

But how should you be able to do this, when your 
eyes are not as yet open to see it ? for this is the case 
while you offer again the right hand of fellowship to a 
man, whom you have described to be so far from the 
faith. You would do much better to be a hearer than 
a helper, until you be sure of your calling ; and to wait, 
as the Apostles did, until you receive power from on 
high. 

If it lay in my power, I would fain do you as much 
good as if you were my own son. I wish you could 
prove your calling, as well as I can prove that God 
has called me to write this letter. I wish the law had 
been your rule, before you entered into the office of 
preaching. I had concluded not to write again, but I 
am not my own master. It is the work of God's min- 
isters, not only to arouse and unmask the hypocrite, but 
also to show the people their strong delusions, as 
Stephen did, before the Jews stoned him to death, and 
as Paul did, who shook off the dust of his feet against 
them. But who is able to do this, unless he is well ac- 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 91 

quainted with those delusions that are now in the Pro- 
testant churches ? 

You are angry with me because I said in effect that 
you know but Uttle. Every man has need of as much 
knowledge as will carry him through, or fit him to fill 
the office which he takes up, with honor to God and 
to his law, and with faithfulness to the souls of men. 
Knowledge, unless it be of the right kind, only puffeth 
up. We are not saved for our knov/ledge, be it little 
or much. The law says that a dwarf cannot offer the 
bread of his God. The gospel says, " Not a novice, 
lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condem- 
nation of the devil." A man may be a professor of the 
gospel for twenty or thirty years, and yet be a novice 
with respect to the ministry. Paul told the Corinthians, 
they were not able to bear strong meat ; he therefore 
fed them with milk, because they were yet carnal, and 
walked as men, and not as the servants of Christ. 

O ! remember you must be undeceived yourself, be- 
fore you can be a fit* instrument in the hand of God to 
undeceive others. Satan does not care if half the 
truths of God are preached, so that the whole truth 
does not come out. The Lord will not thank you for 
doing his work negligently. 

As for your saying that I am not actuated by the 
Spirit of Christ ; let me remind you, if you have for- 
gotten, that it is the work of the Spirit to convince the 
world of sin, as well as of righteousness and of judgment. 
I thank God I have kept nothing back from you that 
might be profitable, either in my experience, or other- 
wise ; and if you never write to me again, I shall have 
a 2"ood conscience towards God and towards you. If 
1 am shut up, the Word of God is not, but I shall have 
" labored in vain, and spent my strength for nought." 



92 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

The Word of God must come forth, though it 
may stand in opposition to friends, or to all relations, 
as the tribe of Levi stood on the Lord's side, when the 
golden calf had been worshipped. They knew not 
their own kindred, therefore they slew without dis- 
tinction, and so does the sword of the Word, at this day, 
in the hand of the Spirit. Bat, as you dislike my cor- 
respondence, and long to be free from it, I now give you 
freedom ; however, 1 shall always esteem you, if you 
never write to me again. 

A few more words and I shall have done. The 
ministers of Christ must preach the law lawfully. 
They must tell the people what the law can do, 
and what it cannot do. The law shows us what great 
sinners we are, but it gives us no power to perform its 
demands ; therefore, the law is a schoolmaster to bring" 
us to Christ. 

The law curses us for the least sin. The law says, 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength ;" but 
this power is only given by Christ, who, by his Spirit, 
is the wind that blows with the word, but never against 
it. xind I thank his holy name for ever, that within 
these ten years past, I can, as Mr, Huntington says, 
shew my conduct by the law, as much as any of 
my accusers, be they who they may. You say that 
I am a sectarian. To what sect do I belong, or what 
sect have I advocated? Let my writings speak for 
themselves. I know very well that all sects that you or 
T have considered orthodox, have gone from Christ, and 
are pleasing themselves with their own idols. They 
have stricken hands with the heterodox, or with the 
church malignant. 

In my former letter I spoke as I thought you would 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 93 

be able to bear it. Now, I ask you plainly, If you hear 
not Moses and the prophets, how will you bear the test 
of the gospel ? And if you bear not that, you will not 
be persuaded though one rose from the dead. But 
I shall be the same in the sight of my God, as if my 
testimony had been received. 

I pray the Everlasting God to bless you with increase 
of true knowledge, and make you a minister indeed, if 
it be his will ; and if he should, you will then esteem 
me for my faithfulness. 

I have not left room for family affairs which you 
must have in my next. Suffice it to say, that we are all 
in good health after a melancholy summer, wherein 
God, by his afiiicting scourge, the cholera, and other 
diseases, has swept into the grave, from the 1st of July, 
to the 15th of October, six thousand inhabitants of our 
city ; — three thousand four hundred and ninety-five, by 
cholera alone. It has now abated. My husband and 
children join with me in love to you, and your wife, 
and children. 

Your grieved Friend, and Sister in Christ, 

A. C. 



New York, 1833. 
To J. L . 



Dear J- 



When you first came to live with ns we did not at- 
tend any church, the reason of which was, that we did 
not approve of any of those ministers whom we had 
heard in this country, and not because we disapproved 
of a true gospel ministry ; for the Lord knows how 



94 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

happy I should be to find such a one. We thought it 
would be best for you to worship with us, as God is not 
confined to churches ; for, wheresoever two or three are 
gathered together in his name, he has promised to be in 
the midst of them, to bless them. You stayed with us 
a long time and appeared satisfied. At length, how- 
ever, I thought you were dissatisfied, by your very fre- 
quent absence. I therefore told you that if you wished 
rather to go to church, you were at liberty to do so. 

I would to God you had continued with us, for 
we should not have taught you rebellion against God ; 
and it may be you might have escaped those pernicious 
principles with which you are now filled to overflowing, 
while you deluge every place where you come, with 
your own infidelity and that of your teachers. It is a 
duty incumbent on me, and which I owe to God and 
to you, to tell you my mind, and give you a faithful 
warning ; in so doing I shall be clean from your blood. 

When S n came to work in the shop the last time, 

my husband did not know so much of his principles as 
I did ; and I became afraid that he would corrupt my 

own sons as well as you. However, Mr. C is 

truly sensible, now it is too late to remedy the evil, of 

the bad effects of S n's professed infidelity, by your 

being carried away with it. I did give you warning to 
beware of him, knowing that he spreads death and 
destruction wheresoever he comes ; bat my warnings 
were all lost upon you, to my very great sorrow 
and your soul's destruction, unless you repent. 

As soon as I was informed of your state, I said you 
should not be called in to prayers in the morning, 
as I feared that God would send sudden destruction 
upon me, if I permitted an infidel thus to mock him. 
You may call this superstition, or whatever you please, 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 95 

yet let me tell you, you will not have long to call it so.* 
If you knew as much of God as I do, you would 
certainly know there is a God; and for proof that there 
is a devil, we may go no further than yourself, for you 
are caught in one of his greatest traps, and if ever you 
come out again, you will then know there is a God. 

You are now rendered unfit for any society, young 
or old, and more especially, you ought not to be in the 
company of your own sisters ; for I am told you have 
your answers ready, if any one tries to convince you of 
your errors. I tell you as one who has obtained mercy 

to be faithful, that like S n, your adviser, you have a 

neck of iron and a brazen brow. 

From this time I intend to search your boxes ; and 
if I find any writings of Tom Paine, or Fanny Wright^ 
or pamphlets of any description which lead to such 
wickedness, or lewd song-books, I will certainly de- 
stroy them ; for my house shall not be a receptacle for 
such trash. And as for you, when you are out of yoiir 
time, you will get no employment here if you do not 
alter ; for while I have any influence in the family, 
I will not have one so hardened in wickedness in the 
shop. 

You say you are very happy since you have adopted 
your new principles. So it seems, for you have a new 
license to sin against God and to do as you please. 
You can stay from home whole nights for almost 
a week together, and neither we nor your parents know 
where you are. You take upon you so much to be 
your own master, although you are not of age, that you 
will not give any account of the manner in which you 
spend your time, nor of the places to which you resort, 
even to your parents. 

* This young man died at Bristol, Connecticut, a short time after. 



96 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

I wish you to beware what you are about, for " It is 
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." 
There is no trouble which can come upon you of 
a worldly nature, that you will ever find half so hard to 
endure, as that trouble will be which must overtake 
you for fighting against God, his Word, and his ways. 

And now let me beg you to leave that Hall of Cor- 
ruption before it be too late. Be advised— flee from it as 
you would from a serpent ; and do not make yourself 
an outcast from society and all good morals. If you do 
not, I have discharged my conscience, and must leave 
you to God. 

Your grieved Friend, 

A. C. 




New York, 1836. 
To Mr. B . 

Sir,— 

I take the liberty to address a few lines to you, the 
cause of which is, a conversation that you held with 

my son concerning R. M , on the first day of the 

New- Year, wherein you intimated that she was low 
and troubled in mind, and that you could see it very 
plainly. You advised him to bring her out to see your 
wife, who, you affirmed, would cheer her spirits, and 
dispel the gloom that hung over her ; intimating that she 
had not company enough, and was too much confined 
in the house. 

Admitting these things to be as you say, (which 
I know you cannot prove,) are there so great attractions 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 97 

in your wife, or such efficacy in lier conversation as to 
dispel the gloom of melancholy? If it be so indeed, she 
might have many applicants ; but this you do not be- 
lieve yourself, neither do I. Our children are at liberty 
to go where they please. I have never prohibited them 
from entering your door, nor do I wish to encourage 
them so to do ; they are of years sufficient to choose for 
themselves. 

Is it your care for R. M — that has wrested these 
expressions from you? Not at all. You desire to 
modify our family to your own wishes ; but God 
has not given all power into your hands. — All glory to 
his name ! he has reserved a part thereof to himself. 

Be content to train your own family according to your 
wishes. You can, if you please, let them go to balls, 
theatres, and other riotous assemblies. New York is not 
wanting for snares, traps, and temptations, to catch 
youth and corrupt their morals. You can suffer them 
to traverse the streets, and enter the houses on the first 
of the year, from morning till night ; I shall not come 
to your abode to undermine your actions, nor to demand 
a reason why you do so ; but this I tell you plainly, 
that for all these things God will bring you into judg- 
ment. 

It is not the first time you have acted in this un- 
dermining manner. You tried to turn the heart of 

Mr. ■ from divine rectitude ; — you intimated to 

him that he did not act rightly by his children. Since 
you have given your advice unimportuned, I will re- 
turn the compliment in the same manner, 

First, Let me advise you to examine well your own 
heart, and see what lies hidden there. If you do this 
in good earnest, it will abundantly recompense you for 
the trouble and suffering which you rna,y eqdure in 

9 



^ AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

the search ; for out of the heart proceedeth a whole 
catalogue of evils, as is witnessed by our Lord. It will 
enable you to lecture on heads whh advantage to your- 
self and others ; for he that knows liimself, is a good 
scholar. 

Secondly, Labor to get that divine and heavenly 
light, life, and love, that will influence your words and 
actions. This will enable yon to see clearly how to 
give advice to those who may be low, or troubled in 
mind, or melancholy. 

Thirdly, Before yon write again on pulpit eloquence, 
I pray you to beg of God who is all merciful and gra- 
cious to returning sinners, to give you a clear sight and 
sense of your interest in his blood and righteousness. 
This, sir, will make you eloquent indeed ; — then shall 
you know what divine eloquence means, which, with ■ 
all your learning, you do not yet understand. God 
will not lightly pass over those who pretend to teach 
sacred things without his mandate; and a discerning 
people will say unto you, " Physician, heal thyself" 

Believe me, sir, I saw more into you than you were 
aware, when you first thrust yourself in as our acquain- 
tance ; — not by Phrenology^ nor the humps on your 
head ; but by some other thing at the sight of which 
a discerning eye cannot mistake. However, I did not 
intimate my thoughts, knowing that accordino- to the 
nature of things, my family would soon find you out. 
It grieves me to see those talents thrown away in the 
service of the devil, which, if they were sanctified, 
might prove a blessing. 

Not one of my family has had the courage to be faith- 
ful unto you ; that task I ha%^e now performed myself, 
and I thank God he has given me mercy to discharge 
my conscience ; not out of malice, but for the good o{ 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 99 

of your soul, if it might so be ; if not, I have performed 
my duty before God and you. I have nothing to say 
against your wife, having had no business at all with 
her ; she has done nothing to me, — my business is 
solely with yourself 

Your's Respectfully, 
A. C. 



New York, November 2d, 1843. 

ny Family^ and to the Branches of the Spouse 
of Christ. 

Ty Dear Friends, 

In the last of Proverbs, is a description of a virtuous 
woman, or wife ; but in all my observations among 
those of us who are women, I have never seen any one 
who answers the description given in this book, and 
indeed, this important question is asked : " Who can 
find a virtuous woman ? for her price is far above rubies." 

We who are women, carry about with us a body of 
sin and death, and can by no means answer this des- 
cription, in all its parts, even after we are renewed by 
divine grace. Neither do we find perfection in our 
husbands; therefore, I thmk that the woman spoken 
of in the text, must mean the whole Church of Christ 
— his Bride, his Spouse, the Wife of the Lamb, (fee ; 
for it is recorded in the first place : " The heart of her 
Husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have 
no need of spoil." By this! understand, that the Bride- 
groom of the Church deposits his Word, for her instruc- 
tion ; — his Spirit, to lead her into all truth ; — his blood, 



100 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

to wash and cleanse her from all her filthiness, and 
pollution; — and his righteousness, for her clothing. 
He deposits with her his invitations and his promises ; 
as may be seen in Pro v. ix, and Isa. Iv. He also 
deposits with her his warnings and his threatenings to 
sinners who go on in their own way of sin and folly, 
and to all Antichristian Churches ; for all who do not 
bring the doctrine of Christ, must come under the 
name of Antichrist, by whatsoever name they may be 
called, whether Catholic or Protestant. Therefore, the 
heart of her Husband, or Christ, doth safely trust in 
her, for, with all these his benefits, "She will do him 
good, and not evil, all the days of her life." 

The Spouse of Christ will not do her Lord's work 
negligently; but having tasted, felt, and handled, the 
Word of life herself, she will not rest until she can 
prevail upon others, to come and be partakers with her 
of her beloved Lord's bount}^, " She seeketh wool and 
flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." She takes 
her Lord's hidden treasure, and disperses it abroad 
wheresoever her Lord sends her, as is to be seen by 
the Apostles, who went forth throughout the world then 
known, taking nothing of the Gentiles, but worked at 
tent-making for their living. Yet I do not condemn 
any of Christ's true ministers, for nsing the means 
which God has put into their hands to live by the gos- 
pel ; but I cannot favor those who, at this day, thrust 
themselves into the ministry, uncalled of God, — unpro- 
vided by God, — and therefore, unfitted for the work. 
And when we encourage such, we take the children's 
bread, and cast it to dogs ; and Paul the Apostle tells 
us to beware of dogs, or false teachers. She, the true 
Spouse will not take her Lord's money, and hide it in 
a napkin. She will not take her corn, her wine, and 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 101 

her oil, which God has committed unto her, to supply 
strangers, — nor the church of Antichrist, — nor the 
Apostate Protestant Church, while its present system 
shall continue, — nor the ministers thereof; for though 
she has done so in her youth and nonage, yet, being 
grown to maturer years, she keeps her corn, wine, oil, 
wool, and flax, for her Lord's household, — for his poor 
and needy ones ; and though she is often deceived by 
wolves in sheep's clothing, yet.^ when they are discovered, 
she will shun them. By this word, " She," you must un- 
derstand the whole Church of Christ, his lawful Spouse. 
It is recorded of Marcus of Arethusa who pulled 
down one of the heathen temples, that after he had en- 
dured a great variety of tortures from the heathen, they 
rubbed his body all over with honey, and hung him 
out in a basket in the open air, to be bitten with wasps 
and flies. They then told him that if he would build 
up again the temple, which he had demolished, they 
would cease to punish him ; but he refused. After 
this, they told him that they would remit half ; still he 
refused to comply with their desires : — they, knowing 
him to be poor, proposed to set him at liberty for a 
much smaller sum ; he answered, that he would not 
give one half-penny to build up a temple, wherein he 
knew the devil was to be worshipped. Neither will 
the Spouse give her Lord's bounty to any Apostate 
Church ; because, in so doing, she would be serving 
the devil, who is at the head of all Apostasy. Yet she 
will feed her enemies, and do good to those who hate 
her, and to mankind in general as much as lies in her 
power, by instructing the ignorant, — by preaching the 
true faith, &c. ; but she will not give place to the devil 
when she can see him in the pulpit, hidden in the skin 
of a man. 

9* 



102 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

The Spouse being" strengthened with all miorht and 
power in the inward man, never tires ; but warns, ex- 
horts, and carries her Lord's niessao^es far and near, 
wheresoever he be pleased to send her. When she 
and her maidens [true ministeis] are reviled, they 
bless ; when persecuted, they suffer it ; when defamed, 
they intreat ; when mocked, they endure it : yea, they 
will lay themselves down to be trampled upon, if, by 
so doing, they can win souls unto Christ. Therefore 
she crieth upon the highest places of the city, to all the 
simple ones who wish for the right understanding of 
her Lord's Holy Word ; she calleth to those who go 
right on in their own way of sin and folly, and to 
others who are yet halting between two opinions. She 
saith to them, " O ye simple ones, understand wisdom ; 
and ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart." She 
saith to them, '' Come, eat of my bread, and drink of 
the wine that I have mingled. Forsake the foolish 
church, the harlot, who hath wandered from her Lord, 
and come with me into the way of imderstanding. 
But, though the Spouse thus stands and calls, she 
meets with many repulses, insults, and excuses ; — one 
goes to his farm, another to his merchandise, (fee. ; yet 
she never tires while she is strengthened by her God, 
but takes fresh courage, and calls again and again. 
Whensoever her Lord gives the word, she proclaims it 
with all diliofence ; — her love to God and to the souls 
of mankind, constrain her so to do. 

Verse 14. " She is like the merchants' ships, she 
bringeth her food from afar." As the merchants' ships 
go through the waters of the sea into foreign countries, 
to trade therein and enrich themselves and others with 
foreign commodities ; even so does the Spouse of 
Christ. She goes down into the deep waters of alHietion 



DROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 103 

and trouble, as Moses, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the 
Apostles did ; and by this their great affliction, they 
brought their food from afar — even from the Bridegroom 
of their souls. With this food the Spouse feeds the 
himgry, and clothes the naked of the Lord's household. 

She riseth while it is yet the night of her affliction, as 
her Lord did in his bitter agonies in the garden 
of Gethsemane. She collects all the materials of 
his death and passion, together with his wonderful 
works which he did before his death ; — his rising again 
and ascension into Heaven ; and then scatters them 
abroad upon all the face of the earth, to gather into the 
Church of Christ, her Husband, the elect from the four 
winds. In this night of her affliction and adversity, she 
riseth and giveth a portion of her meat to her afflicted 
household, who have borne trouble and sorrow with her. 
She receives hope and courage from the Lord, that her 
days of sorrow will not last for ever ; that they will 
at some time have an end ; these glad tidings she 
communicates to her afflicted household, if by any 
means she can comfort them. Her household are the 
children of God, be they where they may. Do not think 
I wish to insinuate that I am the Spouse, any more 
than others of God's children are ; yet I hope 1 am a 
branch of her, and no individual can be any more. 

Verse 16. "Sheconsidereth a field, and buyeth it." 
In Matt. xiii. 44, it is written, " The kingdom of Heaven 
is like unto a treasure hid in a field." In another place, 
the field is called the world, and the Lord himself so weth 
good seed in this field ; but his enemy, the devil, so weth 
tares among the wheat, and goeth his way. The 
Spouse of Christ, knowing by the word of the Lord, 
that this treasure is to be found by diligent seek- 
ing, goes to work in her own way. It is likely that 



104 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

while she is yet burdened with her sins, her ways are 
often perverse, being tempted to beheve every physi- 
cian who throws himself in her way ; yet on she goes, 
determined, if possible, to find that treasure which 
is hid in the field. 

The Lord who had taken a great part of the scales 
from her evf^s. orave her to see that unless she found 
this treasure, she must perish eternally. Therefore, 
she seeks for it among the enemies of her Lord, 
and sfoes from hill to hill, and from mountain to moun- 
tain, and cannot find it ; but very often gets wounds and 
bruises for her pains. The watchmen smite her ; — the 
keepers of the wall take away her veil. She tells her 
Lord these woful tidings. He. seeing her perverseness 
in seeking the living among the dead, is determined to 
give her her fill of wandering after the enemy. He tells 
her not to be discouraged, nor to cast away her con- 
fidence, 

She. seeing so fair a profession, cannot believe that 
the adversary has taken possession of the highest place, 
to sow his tares so thick that the true Church of Christ 
cannot be distinguished. But it seems she found this 
to be the very identical place [the pulpitj where 
Satan sows his tares : of the truth of which when she 
is well convinced; she leaves, and returns to her 
first Husband who had formerly begun to teach her. 
He takes her in notwithstanding her wandering", and 
then it is better with her than it was before. He then gives 
her to see and to know, that the treasure which she had 
been seekinof amonsr the enemies of her Lord, was hid 
in her own heart, and in the hearts of all the Lord's 
hidden ones. At this news she rejoices greatly, though 
she bewails the state of the Protestant Church, because 
of the position of the enemy : yet she knows to the 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 105 

honor of her Lord, that Satan did not always occupy 
the pulpit, though it is rare in these woful days to find 
her Lord there. The Spouse, being fully convinced 
that she has found this treasure, or bought it without 
money and without price, " with the fruit of her hands, 
she planteth a vineyard." By the fruit of the hands is 
meant, faith, by which we are strengthened and en- 
couraged to wait on the Lord, who lifts up the hands 
that hang down, and strengthens the feeble knees. 

The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is his pleasant 
plant, which, in former days, he brought out of Egypt ; 
and now it must be brought out of Egyptian darkness, 
and out from the Antichristian Mother, and out from 
her daughters and her sisters ; for she, the Mother 
of Harlots, has many sisters and daughters, and many 
of the kindred of the Spouse, are yet among them 
groping in that darkness. To them the Spouse calls, 
" Come out from among them, and touch not their 
unclean things." 

In the Ixxxth Psalm, you will find an account of 
this vineyard, which the right hand of the Lord 
hath planted. Then why do you say that the Spouse 
planted a vineyard ? I answer. Did not the Lord com- 
mit his Word and Spirit unto the Church, when they 
had tarried longf enoug^h at Jerusalem to be endued with 
that power from on high ? They received the hidden 
treasure into their own hearts, and then set forward in 
the strength of the Lord, to plant his vineyard among 
the Gentiles, and the enemy followed them with his 
tares; yet with tlie fruit of the hands of the Spouse of 
Christ, the vineyard was planted. 

''She girdeth her loins with strength, and strength- 
eneth her arms." Her whole animal frame is bent to 
do her Lord's will, and to meet all the force and power 



tot &K OUTCR-f FROItt "TftH 

of the enemy, and by faith, prayer, sufferings, tribtrlia^ 
tions, (fee, to overcome. 

Thus you see, my dear friends, that the strength of 
the Lord is the portion of the Spouse. Therefore, 
" She perceiveth that her merchandise is good : her 
candle goeth not out by night." It often happens that 
the Bridegroom permits the Spouse, for purposes best 
known to himself, to have a long night of darkness ; 
but before she enters into it, he prepares her for it. He 
assures her of his protection, and bids her not to sink 
in the day of adversity, even if father, niother, brethren, 
sisters, true brethren, and false brethren, should come 
against her with all their might; for "underneath her 
are the everlasting arms :" yea, and if the adversary of 
souls buffet her by night and by day, in himself, or 
by any other whom he sees fit for his purpose, he 
assures her that he will be with her, to deliver her out 
of the hand of the enemy, and from all those who hate 
her. even as he was with Jacob, Joseph, Job, the Pro- 
phets, and Apostles. 

It is often the case that some of the children of God 
have to endure these afflictions and hidings of the 
Lord's face for many years ; thus it was with Jacob, 
who saw not his beloved son for more than twenty years. 
Joseph too, had many years of sorrow. — Moses bore 
the gainsaying of the children of Israel forty years. — 
Job was in great affliction we know not how long. — 
The poor woman who was bowed together by the 
power of Satan, was in that state eighteen years ; be- 
sides many other instances in the Old and New Testa- 
ments. And I have no doubt that even at this day, 
some there are who have been under the hidings of the 
Lord's face respecting the Apostate Protestant Church, 
as long as that poor woman was, if not longer ; and 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 107 

have suffered sorrows and buffetings, and loss of earthly- 
relations, and Christian friends : in short, all. those 
things above written, they may have encountered ; yet, 
being branches of the Spouse, " their candle goeth not 
out by night." 

It appears to me that no one can be tried more than 
Job was ; yet his candle went not out by night. In 
this night of his affliction he exclaimed, '• I know that 
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the lat- 
ter day upon the earth : And though, after my skin, 
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
God." ifec. The Lord God is the light of his Spouse, 
in all the days and nights of darkness which he calleth 
her to endure. Darkness and desertion may well be 
compared to night. The children of Israel had light 
in their dwellings, when the whole land of Egypt was 
in darkness ; and God sends light to the Spouse when 
she walks in darkness, and in the shadow of death, be- 
ing forsaken by all, as is above written. 

"She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands 
hold the distaff." By this I understand, that the Spouse 
is willing to do the Lord's work whensoever she is 
called to do it. She is God's husbandry, and his 
building, and must become a laborer together with 
God. Therefore, " She stretcheth out her hand to the 
poor and needy" of the Lord's household, and crieth to 
them to come and eat oi her bread, and drink of the 
wine which she hath mingled. "She hath killed her 
beasts, furnished her table, &c. As this is the jan- 
guacre of the Old Testament, under which dispensation 
the biood of beasts was used in their expiations for sin, 
I understand that it points to the sacrifice of Christ, as 
it is written in Matt. xxii. 4, when a certain king 
sent forth his servants to call them which were bidden, 



108 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

to the marriage, saying, " I have prepared my dinner ; 
my oxen and my fallings are killed, and all things are 
ready." So may the Spouse say now by the precious 
blood and sacrifice of Christ, the Bridegroom, that a 
dinner is prepared, for the poor, needy, halting, wither- 
ed, lamC; blind, deaf, and dumb of the Lord's house- 
hold. If she can gain a hearing, or their acceptance of 
these divine mercies, then, " She is not afraid of the 
snow for her household ; for all her household are 
clothed with scarlet.*' They are washed in the blood, 
and clothed with the righteousness of Christ, which is 
of more value than coverings of tapestry, or of silk and 
purple. 

It is well known that the Spouse has had many long 
nights of affliction ; — from Abel down to the Christian 
era ; — then, by the Jews and Roman Emperors ; — after- 
wards, by Antichristians : yet she riseth while it is yet 
night, and girdeth her loins with his truth, and lifteth 
up her hands of faith to the Lord for strength, which 
she obtains by prayer. Being thus strengthened in 
might and power in the inward man, " her candle goeth 
not out ;" though it often gets dim, and requires trim- 
ming, like the lamp of the wise virgins ; yet she trusts 
to the faithfulness of her Lord, to whom her cause is 
committed, and who never forsakes her in the day of 
her calamity. 

Verse 23- " Her Husband is known in the gates, 
when he sitteth among the elders of the land. " By 
this I understand, that it was formerly the custom of 
the Jews, to sit in the gate of their cities, to hear con- 
troversies or causes, and to do judgment and justice, in 
the land, as in the example of Boaz and Pvuth ; when 
the elders of the land bore witness to the justice done 
to that stranger, who had left her country and her 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 109 

kindred to join herself to the people of God, and granted 
her their blessing ; by which it was known that the 
Lord was among them, because they judged the cause 
of the poor : so the Lord, who is the Husband of the 
Church, will certainly see that justice is done to her, 
and by this, her kindred or relationship shall be known. 

But further, " She maketh fine linen, and selleth it ; 
and delivereth girdles unto the merchant." In the Reve- 
lations it is written, — " To her [the Spouse] was granted 
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and 
white : that fine linen is the righteousness of saints." 
The Lord says that she shall walk with him in white ; 
for she is worthy by the comeliness which he has put 
upon her. It is recorded in the Psalms, " She shall be 
brought unto the King in raiment of needle- work : the 
virgins her companions that follow her shall be 
brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing," (fee. 
By girdles, T understand the precepts of the Spouse, 
who willeth her Lord's household to have their loins 
girt about with truth ; — to put on the breast-plate of 
righteousness ; — and to have their feet shod with the 
preparation of the gospel of peace ; — to have their 
lamps trimmed, and their lights burning, that so they 
may be like unto men who wait for their Lord when 
he Cometh at the first, second, or third watch, that they 
may receive his blessing of " Well done, good and 
faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." 

Verse 25. " Strength and honor are her clothing ; 
and she shall rejoice in time to come." Yerse 26. '* She 
openeth her mouth with wisdom ; and in her tongue is the 
law of kindness." "Verse 27. " She looketh well to the 
ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idle- 
ness." Indeed, as the Apostles manifested care for the 
household of faith, lest they should be carried away by 

10 



110 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

false doctrine : — by a form of godliness without the pow- 
er ; — by the depths of Satan, who. in every way which 
he can devise, seeketh to devour their souls ; so the 
Spouse •' eateth not the bread of idleness." but teaches, 
warns, and exhorts, by the law of kindness which is on 
her tongue. "* Her children rise up and call her blessed ; 
her Husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daugh- 
ters have done virtuously, but thou excellest thera all." 
The Lord of hosts is the Husband of the Spouse, and 
her chi'dren are they that listen to her voice, and re- 
ceive her instructions, invitations, 6cc. "Favor is 
deceitful, and beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth 
the Lord, (as all the household of the Lord do.) she 
shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands ; 
and let her own works praise her in the gates ;" and 
then she will not sound her own trumpet, as the false 
church, or harlot does. The price which the Lord sets 
upon this fair woman or Spouse, is far above rubies, 
being no less than the precious blood of Christ, which 
he shed for her ransom. 

You may see it is the Church that is meant that 
shines in the glory that he has put upon her, especially 
upon her pastors and teachers. But where is this 
Church to be found in these woful days? I believe 
she is scattered abroad in the congregations of the Apos- 
tate Protestant Church and others throughout the world. 
May God, the Everlasting Father, gather his sons and 
dausfhters out. and bring- them toofether in one heart, 
one soul, and one judgment, to pray unto him to send 
forth laborers into his vineyard I The blessing of Fa- 
ther, Son and Spirit, be with you all. Amen. 

A. C. 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. Ill 

New York, November 25th, 1843. 

To my Family^ and to the Church of Christ scattered 
abroad in the City of New York and elsewhere^ 
greeting. 

My Dear Friends, 

In the ninth of Proverbs, 13th and following verses, 
you have a description of a false church, represented 
by a foolish woman. There is great similarity between 
the false church of Satan, and the true Church of 
Christ, both of which, in this same chapter, are repre- 
sented by a woman. The foolish woman, harlot, or 
church of Satan, " is clamorous, and knoweth nothing." 
" She sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the 
high places of the city, (no less than in the pulpit, I 
warrant you,) To call passengers who go right on their 
ways." And too often she calls, and prevails with those 
who are going on in the Lord's way ; for " The sim- 
ple believeth every word : but a prudent man looketh 
well to his going ;" while those who lack understanding 
are caught in the snare. They listen to her " much fair 
speech," not knowing " that the dead are there ; and 
that her guests are in the depths of hell." They yield 
to her persuasions " till a dart strike through the liver." 

The Antichristian Church is likened unto a woman 
sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, having been made 
drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of 
Jesus. This woman is " the great whore that sitteth 
upon many waters," and she has ruled most of the 
nations of the earth. She, being the great Mother, has 
many sisters and daughters who are not yet so wicked 
as she is, but are following hard after her pernicious 
ways. " These be they who separate themselves, 



112 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

sensual, not having- the Spirit." Who have a " form 
of godliness, but deny the power thereof"' Such are 
all they who teach false doctrine ; and all they who 
deny either the Father, or the Son, or the Spirit ; and 
all they who are pleasing themselves with their own 
deceiviugs at this day. 

But this •' foolish woman is clamorous, and knoweth 
nothing." She does not know that she is not renewed, 
nor regenerated; nor born of the Spirit, and therefore, 
when she sitteth upon her hio^h places, to call in passen- 
gers with her alluring voice, if it should be the sad 
hap of any of the Lord's simple ones to be present, it 
too often happens that they obey her voice : for when 
they are with young, they are too apt to stray from the 
Lord's fold in search of some able physician, by whom 
they may be skilfully delivered. But this foolish 
woman, who knoweth nothing about the goings of God 
upon her own soul, cannot find out the ailments or 
diseases of the Lord's people ; however, the simple ones 
try her again and again, until she becomes quite weary 
of their importunities, but v.nthout any effect. At first 
she frowns, to see if that will awe them into silence. If 
that does not answer her expectations, she then begins 
to mock from her high places. But if the Lord in any 
measure opens the eyes of these simple ones to see into 
her wiles, they will not give place to her, no, not for 
an hour. If, after this, she cannot get rid of them, she 
will hold them up to ridicule from her high places ; 
and afterwards she will curse them. 

I tell vou, my friends, •• It is better to dwell in a 
corner of the house-top, than with this brawling wo- 
man, in a wide house ;"* for this reason : — She comes 
to you with a lie in her right hand, by trying to make 
you believe that she is called and fitted to be a laborer 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 113 

together with God in his household, to call sinners to 
repentance, or to build up and establish the saints in 
their most holy faith, when, at the same time, she has 
never been through the real furnace of Zion, but only 
an imaginary one, and as the text says, she "knovveth 
nothing ;" and the Lord's people know that she knoweth 
nothing. She is like a drone bee, which will eat the 
honey, but will bring none home for the good of the 
community. In truth, it is well known to the Spouse, 
that to get a living without work ; — to gain a great 
name, or the praise of men ; — and to obtain the wool 
and the flax, the corn, the wine, and the oil, are the 
things which this false woman seeks. 

But the Spouse will not give the children's bread 
unto strangers, nor unto dogs. She will first say unto 
this clamorous woman. When I reap your spirituals, 
you shall reap my carnals ; and then you will have a 
just right to them, and to receive double honor ; but 
that is not the case with you at this time, as all your 
works testify, in as much as you have departed from 
the simplicity of Christ, and have set up your own 
traditions, wliims, and fancies, to be worshipped in- 
stead of Christ. I counsel you to pray without ceasing, 
to the great Head of the Church, to make you a true 
minister of his Holy Word, and then you will be able to 
open your mouth unto God for the dumb, and to see 
into the true cause of the various diseases of the chil- 
dren of God. 

After she has thus been warned by the Spouse, fear- 
ing that all her foxlike wiles will be blazed abroad, 
what does she but break out into open rage with the 
Spouse, representing herself as being exceedingly per- 
secuted and ill treated ? This she does from her high 
places, with views as base as her other actions, to hide 

10* 



114 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

the real truth from her audience, and to insure their 

sympathy, as Joseph's mistress deceived her husband 
by her false tales. It has been the manner of this har- 
lot in all ages, to render eril for good, and cursing for 
blessing. The Spouse hears all this in silence, — and 
commits her cause to tlie Bridegroom, by whom she is 
strengthened to bear with patience whatsoever is for 
her good : then she goes on her way rejoicing, and 
comes out from this harlot with her hands on her 
Head, Christ. Jer. ii. 37. 

My dear friends, we have been tried in various ways, 
but in nothing so much as by running after this strum- 
pet, or clamorous woman. Our trials have lasted 
nearly twenty years, but be not ye discouraged ; — 
these things are nothing new with God ; — he tries his 
people long, that they may not be found wanting in 
that excellent grace of patience. Abraham was long 
tried, before his Isaac came. — Jacob was long tried, 
before he saw his beloved son Joseph, after his brethren 
had sold him. — Job was tried much more than we have 
been, yet God brought his trials to an end. — The im- 
potent man lay at the pool thirty and eight years. The 
poor woman who was bowed together, and could by 
no means lift up herself, was in that dreadful state 
eighteen years : yet an end was put to her suiferings. 
Let not us, therefore, be discouraged ; for I feel assured 
that God will either remove our difficulties, or give us 
more strength to bear them. I really do feel at certain 
times as if deliverance were near at hand. I know God 
can in a moment of time give us such society as shall 
be for his glory, and for our own benefit. You know 
that '' By a whorish woman, a man is brought to a 
piece of bread ; and the adulteress will hunt for the pre- 
cious life ;■' and through this harlot, I have very often 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 115 

been unable to eat until the sun was down, because I 
saw the evil which this enemy had done in the Sanc- 
tuary ; for I thought that if the sun had life, he would 
be ashamed to shine upon the false profession of the 
day. Her time is fast approaching when the Lord will 
give it into her hands double; — for all the afflictions 
that she has caused to come upon the Spouse of Christ, 
she shall receive double. This boldfaced harlot will 
rob the writings of the servants of Christ, and preach 
them as her own productions, that she may shine in the 
light which she has borrowed of the Spouse or her 
maidens, whom she has sent forth to preach and write 
the glad tidings of the gospel of peace. 

My friends, I know the hatred that the Bridegroom 
of our soul bears to such wickedness. He will not 
suffer his beloved Spouse to rob, steal, nor borrow, be- 
cause he will permit her to shine, only in that light 
which she receives from him. " He hateth robbery for 
burnt-offering." He tells her she shall lend to many, 
but borrow of none. Dent. xv. 6 ; and xxviii. 12. I 
have myself been in almost black despair for three days 
and three nights, for using only two expressions from 
a certain author without naming him ; because, by so 
doing, others might think them to be my own produc- 
tion. I believe the words which I used did not in all 
amount to ten ; but such was the anger of God upon 
me, that my existence might be compared with the 
three days of darkness that came upon the Egyptians 
in the land of Egypt. This letter was written to a 
certain man, nearly twenty years since ; therefore, I 
have felt the anger of God severely, and it has for ever 
cured me of robbing, or stealing, or of shining in the 
light which God has given to others ; for, as Mr. Bun- 
yan says, in another case, "I smartingly did feel." I 



116 AN OUTCRY FROM THE i 

do not think there is any crime in quoting from an au- 
thor if we name him; but to send any thing of the 
kind out as our own production, must be hateful to God 
and to man. 

The Bridegroom furnishes his Spouse with "things 
new and old," to bring forth unto the people. Is the 
Spouse idle ? Has she nothing to do, as the letter-men 
will audaciously tell us? O my friends ! though it is 
true that we can do nothing to merit or purchase our 
salvation, yet the Spouse is no longer her own ; she is 
bought with a price which is far above rubies ; there- 
fore, she is the Lord's, and constantly waits upon her 
divine Lord and Master, by never-ceasing prayer. She 
thinks no work too great which he calls her to do or to 
suffer, if she can, by any means awaken sinners, and 
bring them to repentance, as may be seen by the Pro- 
phets and Apostles, — by the primitive Church, and at 
the Reformation. 

In the first chapter of the second of Peter, we are 
exhorted to '• add to our faith, virtue ; and to virtue, 
knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance : and to 
temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and 
to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly 
kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and 
abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren 
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

Now I ask. How is the Spouse to gain all these 
good qualities, as she is exhorted, if, as some say, she 
has nothing to do, and every thing is done for her ? I 
answer. She gains all these things by her industry ; she 
knows where they are to be had, and therefore she 
prays without ceasing, and God answers her prayers 
by plunging her into the furnace in a variety of ways :" 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 117 

"In labors, in stripes, in prisons, in deaths ; in journey- 
ings, in perils in the wilderness, in perils among false 
brethren ; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings, 
ni hunger and thirst, in fastings, in cold and naked- 
ness, besides the care of all the Churches." You see 
liere is both labor and travel, and Peter the Apostle 
says, " He that lacketh these things is blind, and can- 
not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged 
from his old sins." 

If you wish to know whether the Spouse of Christ 
has anything to do, — go down into the deep waters 
with her; — go into the fiery furnace with her, and see 
the anguish of her heart ; — watch her in her prayers 
and holy wrestlings witli her Lord ; — behold her run- 
ning up and down among Zion's mourners, to see if 
she can find the least glimpse of hope that she shall 
not always be in this furnace, or sunk into despair. 
Some persons may say that there is no necessity for all 
this labor and travel in this " Enlightened Age." I 
would not give much for that knowledo^e or experience, 
that comes in any other way than by labor and travel 
of soul; and we shall be sure to have it too in these 
days ; for the enemy, or clamorous woman, or harlot, 
watches the movements of the Spouse, and if possible, 
will thrust in her foolish virgins, who have no oil in 
their lamps, but rob, steal, and plunder, from the la- 
bors of the Spouse ; and then she will tell her audience 
that these •' stolen waters are sweet," and that this bread 
which she dispenses is pleasant : but any one whose 
eye can discern these tricks, knoweth " that the dead 
are there ; and that her guests are in the depths of 
hell." 

It is not without cause that we are admonished to 
pray without ceasing, because our adversary, the devil, 



118 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

goeth about seeking to devour our souls by the be- 
witcheries of this harlot, who is not ashamed to vend 
her own wares also in her high places, by bringing forth 
her anecdotes to amuse her simple ones. Her excuse 
is, that the fancies of her hearers must be tickled, to 
bring in a larger congregation. Being conscious that 
Christ, his Spirit, and grace, are wanting, she does this 
to make up the deficiency ; but, from the beginning to 
the end of the Scriptm*es, I have never seen any thing 
to encourage lightness or trifling. 

It was a most serious thing with the Bridegroom, 
v/hen he laid down his life for the Spouse. It was so 
also to the disciples, and all his friends and acquain- 
tances ; and they were serious in propagating his doc- 
trine, and God worked for them and in them in it. In- 
deed, the Spouse is bid to rejoice, but it must be in the 
Lord. — She rejoices with trembling, knowing that the 
•• Lord is a consuming fire" to the adversary, or to those 
who make light of sacred things. The true Spouse 
seeks to this very day union with the faithful of the 
land, that their united prayers may draw down bles- 
sings from the Bridegroom. My friends, if there are 
no more than two or three of us, our prayers of faith 
shall prove unto us an army with banners flying, and 
trumpets sounding ; for the Bridegroom will come and 
build up all the breaches which the adversary has 
made in our walls, and then the virgins of Israel 
"shall be adorned with tabrets, and shall go forth in 
the dances of them that make merry." For the Bride- 
groom says to his weeping Spouse, "Refrain thy voice 
from weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work 
shall be rewarded, saith the Lord ; and they," thy chil- 
dren, or household of faith, "shall come again from the 
land of the enemy." Thus you may plainly see, that 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 119 



when the Spouse and her virgins rejoice, it is in the 
Lord. She rejoices not in iniquity, but in the truth ; — • 
her ornaments are those which the Bridegroom puts 
upon her, and when she is adorned with these orna- 
ments, she shines in the eyes of her Lord, and is not 
afraid to meet the enemy, though he come against her 
with double force. Bat for all these things the Spouse 
must show her industry, because the Lord will be in- 
quired of t?iat he may do these things for her ; there- 
fore, she is often in the furnace, that she may be the 
more urgent in her prayers. Her Lord will have these 
things prayed for, or he will most assuredly bring her 
into such straits that she cannot but pray for them. In 
this tribulation, she rejoices, " knowing that tribulation 
v/orketh patience ; and patience, experience ; and ex- 
perience, hope ;" (fee. I now conclude, wishing you to 
" grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and 
for ever. Amen." A. C. 



New York, December 9th, 1843. 
To the Same. 

My Dear Friends, 

I now resume the subject, with the view of making 
you acquainted with some of the tricks of the harlot, or 
false church. 

When the true Spouse, by her wise virgins [minis- 
ters] has propagated salvation by grace, or justification 
by faith, and has made proper distinctions between the 
Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ, by telling sin- 



120 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

ners that the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ, that we may be saved by ^race, as the Apostles, 
Luther, and every man whom God has taught by his 
Spirit, do ; immediately this clamorous woman that 
" knoweth nothing," becomes alarmed, — takes her 
trumpet.— mounts up into her high places, — blows a 
blast, — gives an uncertain sound, — and tells her audi- 
ence, (so great is her hatr#d to the Spouse, especially if 
she has properly defined between a hypocrite and a 
saint,) that the Spouse has made void the law through 
faith. 

Her foolish virgins [ministers] take the alarm, and 
without further examination, sound their trumpets 
from their high places, with the same uncertain sound 
as their mother. Their numerous auditors do not ex- 
amine for themselves, but believe the foolish virgins ; 
which belief establishes them in hatred to the Spouse, 
and this trumpet with an uncertain sound is handed 
from one to another, until the whole land is filled with 
darkness, or the smoke of the bottomless pit. 

This shameless woman would make the world be- 
lieve that the Law of Moses, or of God, is her only 
rule ; when at the same time, if she had listened to 
Moses, or the law, she would not have climbed up into 
the ministry. The law says, that the blind and the 
lame must not come near to offer the bread of their 
God, nor any one of Aaron's seed who hath a blemish. 
And that she is blind, her speeches declare, because she 
knows not how to handle the law ; therefore, she does 
not see that she has risen up against the Spouse with a 
lie in her right hand. 

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, " No 
man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is 
called of God, as was Aaron." And though this: was 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 121 

meant of their high-priests, who typified Christ, yet 
the inferior priests were all appointed of God for their 
difierent offices ; and none but the seed of Aaron dared 
to come near to offer incense, which is manifest by 
the immediate death of the two hundred and fifty men 
who offered incense in the wilderness. And Aaron's 
two sons suffered the like fate for offering strange fire, 
which they took not from off the altar. 

The Apostle Paul in his address to Timothy, tells 
him to lay hands suddenly on no man ; nor to be a 
partaker of other men's sins, which must be the case 
with those v/ho knowingly send out a novice to preach ; 
for it is very likely that he will be lifted up with pride, 
and fall into the condemnation of the devil. It is most 
certain that no man is fit for the ministry of the gospel 
if he comes with a lie in his mouth. Our Lord chose 
his Apostles, and he chooses his own ministers at all 
times. We are exhorted by the Apostle, to " lay apart 
all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and to re- 
ceive with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able 
to save our souls." Jam. i. 21. 

My dear friends, it is painful to me, when I consider 
that those of the children of God who are at this day 
scattered abroad in the congregations, and who see, in a 
great measure, this false fire that the enemy has cast 
into the Sanctuary, — I say, it is grievous to me that 
they do not come out from among them, and separate 
themselves, by uniting together and praying unto the 
Lord of the harvest, to send forth laborers into his har- 
vest, that will feed his people with knowledge and un- 
derstanding. If you answer me as many others have, 
and say, God must touch the hearts of his people, and 
move them to desire and pray for the enlargement of 
Zion, before it can be done ; I answer, True ; but do 

11 



122 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

you only say, " We see," as the Pharisees did, to whom 
our Lord said, " If ye were blind, ye should have no sin ; 
but now ye say, We see ; therefore your sin remaineth V 

My dear friends, do you indeed see the evil which 
the enemy has done in the churches, and are not your 
hearts touched with it? Then indeed, it is no sign 
that God is in you. Do you know these things, and 
are you past feeling? Do you choose to have your 
hearts hardened, and your eyes blinded ? Then indeed, 
you must stay in the congregations of the dead. TJiere 
are many that come, or seem to come, at least, with 
a double heart unto Christ, but '' Let not such think 
that they shall receive any thing of the Lord : for A 
double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." God 
will not hear our prayers, while our hearts and affec- 
tions cleave unto the world ; nor v/hile we are delighted 
with that false fire which the enemies of our Lord Jesus 
Christ have thrown into the Sanctuary ; and which the 
harlot is holding up to her votaries, while she causes them 
to drink of her deadly poisons, until they become intoxi- 
cated with these her wares and merchandise. 

I believe you know that we are all wild by nature ; 
and that we can bear no good fruit, as it respects our 
salvation, while in that carnal state, because our hearts 
are earthly, sensual and devilish, and require the touch- 
ing and engrafting of the Spirit of God, even as a tree 
which bears bad fruit, requires that its branches be cut 
off, and that it be grafted from some other tree which 
bears good fruit. It is even so with our old stock, or 
fruitless tree ; — the branches of sin which shoot out 
every way in us, require to pass under the hand of the 
Holy Spirit, who handles the pruning-knife. TSiese 
spurious branches must be cut off, though they be 
dearer to you than a right eye or a right hand ; and 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 123 

even then, unless you escape better than others do, you 
will find enough in the old root, to keep you watching 
and waiting for strength so to subdue them, that sin 
may not reign in your mortal bodies, to obey it in the 
lusts thereof. 

The first branch which the Apostle names, is " All 
filthiness," which must be cut off. As James was 
writing to the Church of God which was scattered 
abroad, it is reasonable to believe that he could not 
mean the filthiness of the flesh. It is presumed that 
this kind of sins had been done away by the washing 
of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. 

My brethren, spiritual wickedness in high places, is as 
abominable in the sight of God, as the filthiness of the 
flesh, and true ministers are called to contend ag^ainst it ; 
and this spiritual wickedness is represented by the wo- 
man with "a golden cup in her hand full of abomina- 
tions and filthiness of her fornication." This woman 
represents Mystical Babylon, or the Antichristian 
Church, with all her sisters and daughters, or any soci- 
eties who call themselves Christians, but who are des- 
titute of the Spirit, and join hands to help carry on, 
in any way whatever, the present system in the Protest- 
ant Churches. "They who have not the Spirit of 
Christ, are none of his ;" and if they are not his, it fol- 
lows that they belong to Antichrist. There are none 
of the different churches at this day, but will claim for 
themselves that they have the Spirit, except it be they 
that deny the existence of the Spirit. Then how are 
we to know the Spirit of Christ from the spirit of Anti- 
christ ? It can be easily known by the fruits, and the 
word shall be the judge ; " There is a generation that are 
pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from 
their filthiness." Prov. xxx. 12. 



124 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

The harlot in the ninth of Proverbs " knoweth noth- 
ing," yet she is clamorous, and pretends to know all 
things, although she is not washed from her filthiness ; 
— she knoweth nothing about the engrafting or indwel- 
ling of the Holy Spirit. Her naughtiness is seen in this 
also — she is more bold and audacious than a common 
harlot of the street ; for such a one will not come into 
the house of the wife of the man with whom she fre- 
quently cohabits. But this harlot in the figure is bold, 
she puts on a fair face, and with a smooth tongue, will 
tell you that she seeks your God, and the welfare of 
Zion ; — and that she is commissioned from him to as- 
sist the Spouse in building the house of God, Sanbal- 
lat like. By means of this fair face of hers, she wins 
our hearts, creeps into the houses of the faithful and 
unsuspecting, and we follow her, till, like Solomon's 
young man, " a dart strike through the liver," by the 
touches of the Holy Spirit, which, as Paul the Apostle 
writes, " pierceth even to the dividing asunder of soul 
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a dis- 
cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." By 
these touches of the Holy Spirit, which often plunge the 
children of God into great distress, as it is written above, 
they discover the falsity of her pretensions. 

My dear friends, the Spouse of Christ will eat no 
man's bread for nought ; — she will use all means in her 
pov/er, to counsel men to seek for that same spiritual 
bread which delighteth her soul. Indeed, it would be 
better for any one to be in want of common bread, than 
to be in want of the bread of life, which it is not in the 
power of this adversary to distribute. Therefore, if we 
would indeed be built up a spiritual house unto God, 
we must shun her, as Zerubbabel and the rest of the 
Jewish fathers shunned Sanballat and his company; and 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 125 

tell her that she has no part nor lot in building the 
house of God, but that the Spouse herself will build, 
being set on by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah. 

Another of her superfluities of naughtiness is. — she 
will take Total Abstinence, one of her own daughters, 
dress her up in the fashion of the times, and call her 
Temperance. She will send for fine singers to sing in 
her praise in the churches, and for reformed drunkards 
to speak in her praise ; and though they have given 
her a name that does not belong to her, yet they make 
the building resound with the applause which they so 
profusely lavish upon her. 

Not so does the true and lawful Spouse of Christ. — 
She will not do evil that good may come, nor will she 
come with a lie in her hand ; but she is guided by her 
Lord to call things by their proper names. He has left 
her a legacy, which she, by her industry, has gathered 
together into two heaps for her own use, while she 
travels on towards the Celestial City, and for the use 
of her virofins whom she sends " forth in the dances of 
them that make merry," or of them that bring glad 
tidings of the gospel of peace. In this legacy she finds 
that Temperance is one of her own daughters, and calls 
her by her proper name ; utterly renounces Total 
Abstinence as illegitimate, not her own child, but the 
real daughter of the harlot, or clamorous woman that 
" knoweth nothing," not even how to call persons or 
things by their proper names. 

By searching her legacy which the Lord has left to 
be her guide, she finds written in the law given to 
the Jews, that their priests were forbidden to drink 
wine when they entered into the Sanctuary. This 
was to be a statute for ever throughout their genera- 
tions ; — but does it hence follow that they were never 

ir 



126 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

to drink wine ? Also the Xazarite was to separate 
himself from wine all the time his vows were upon 
him ; but it does by no means follow that he must 
never drink any, seeins: that it was the common drink 
of the country. 

This harlot, to make her own tale go down with the 
multitude, will say that the wine used in that country 
was not strong, but merely the juice of the grape un- 
fermented. Then I ask, Why are these words written ; 
" Wine is a mocker, strong drink is rasping ; and who- 
soever is deceived thereby is not wise ?" Ao^ain : " Look 
not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth 
his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright : At 
the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an 
adder ?"' 

The Spouse says, " It is not for kings to drink wine, 
nor for princes strong drink. Prov. xxxi. 4. As they 
are Chief Magistrates, and sit, (or ought so to do at 
least,) in the place of God. to do judgment and justice 
in the land, they ought to be exceedingly careful how 
they expose themselves to the temptation of wine-bib- 
bing, lest they forget to do justice in the cause of all 
such as are appointed to destruction. Benhadad and 
the heathen kings who were with him, were drinking 
themselves drunk in the house of their s"ods. when the 
king of Israel came out against them, and overcame 
them in battle. 

The Spouse, being temperate herself, enjoins temper- 
ance upon all her votaries, in eating, drinking, sleep- 
ing, clothing, and indeed, in all things ; but she does 
not tell them they must not eat at all, lest they should 
eat too much ; nor does she tell them they must not 
wear any clothes, if they are extravagant in dress. 
Let every one who cannot drink in moderation, or tern- 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 127 

perately, go without wine or strong drink, until he has 
subdued his own spirit ; for " He that ruleth his spirit, 
is better than he that taketh a city." Prov. xvi. 32. 
The xipostle Paul says, " Every man that striveth for 
the mastery is temperate in all things;" alluding to 
those who used great temperance to prepare themselves 
for the Athletic Games. " They do it to obtain a cor- 
ruptible crown ;" but Paul and all true Christians bring 
their bodies into subjection, lest, being clogged with 
food or drink, they become unfit for the work to which 
God has called them ; or as Paul writes, •' Lest that by 
any means, when I have preached to others, I myself 
should be a cast-away." 

The pastors, ministers, bishops, &c., of the Gospel 
Church, must not be given to much wine. Here it 
may be seen that it is sometimes considered necessary 
to take a little, as it is recommended to Timothy to 
take a little wine for his health's sake, and for his often 
iniirmities. Also the Bridegroom allows wine to be 
used in the communion : — as the bread represents the 
body of Christ, so the wine represents the blood of 
Christ, which was shed for the Spouse. At the mar- 
riage feast, Christ made even water into wine ; and if, 
as some say, it was nothing but the juice of the grape, 
why did the Apostles in so many places in the New 
Testament, exhort to soberness, sobriety ? &c. as there 
could have been no danger of drunkenness from the 
juice of the grape, any more than there could be from 
water. 

The Church of Christ would wish to see no intem- 
perance in the world ; but she will never tell lies, nor 
speak wickedly for God, to make the world sober. The 
Apostles, with the word of truth on their tongue, did 
their utmost endeavor to persuade men ; but they never 



128 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

attempted to persuade them in opposition to the truth ; 
and if, by their preaching, drunkards were reclaimed, 
with other sinners, (as no doubt many were,) they made 
no parade nor pompous show of their great doings in 
their cities, as they who follow Total Abstinence with 
applauses do now, in ours, by processions witnessed by 
hundreds, by thousands, and by tens of thousands, so 
great is the predilection for pomp and show in this 
work of supererogation, which God has not commanded, 
and which is now carried on by the harlot, or false 
church. 

Modern Charity is also one of her daughters, whom 
she holds up to her votaries, and calls by a wrong 
name ; — I call her modern, because she is different 
from the ancient ; her real name is Ostentation, which 
plainly appears by the parade, processions, <fcc., of the 
teachers and children of the different schools and socie- 
ties, who traverse the streets, or fields, or both, to show 
unto the world the extent of their charity, and to gain 
the praise of men. The Lord tells such that they have 
their reward ; that is, they have that poor and paltry 
stuff — the praise of men. I look upon these things 
with grief, knowing that when things are done for 
pomp and show, the givers have no reward from God. 

Our Lord bids his Spouse to take heed that she do 
not her alms before men, to be seen of them ; other- 
wise she has no reward of her Father which is in 
Heaven. Secondly, he bids her not to sound a trum- 
pet before her as the hypocrites do, nor to let her left 
hand know what her right hand doeth : that her alms 
may be in secret ; and her Father which seeth in se- 
cret, himself shall reward her openly. 

Contrary to this is that Phantom which is now called 
Charity. All parade and show is sounding a trumpet 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 129 

before us, that others may see our good works, as the 
proud and ostentatious Pharisees of old did, when they 
loved to pray standing at the corners of streets, or in 
the market-places to be seen of men. I have seen hun- 
dreds of children parading the streets of a certain town 
in Europe, with their teachers by their side, with ban- 
ners bearing mottoes in words like these : " I was igno- 
rant, and ye instructed me." I then beheld those mot- 
toes with great sorrow, for reasons above written. 

I therefore say unto you who are rich, and unto you 
who have knowledge, Is it not the command of God 
unto yon, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and 
to visit the sick ? Ought you not to instruct the igno- 
rant, and those who have no means of knowing God's 
Word ? If ye have riches, are ye not paupers upon the 
charity of God, who hath given to you liberally, and 
doth not upbraid you with any of his gifts, nor send 
you about the streets for a show to display them to oth- 
ers ; but commands you, as you have freely received, 
freely to give, after the example of David, king of Israel, 
who, when he with his people had prepared for the 
building of the Temple, said unto God in his prayer : — 
" But who and what am I, and what is my people, that 
we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? 
for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we 
given thee." I say, therefore, unto you. that all your 
store of riches comes from God, and is all his own, and 
from his charitable gifts to you, have you given. 
O my God ! we are all paupers of an hour, or pen- 
sioners of a day upon thy bounty ! How quickly 
mightest thou lay us level with the poorest creature 
upon earth ! Small cause have we to parade the streets 
with ostentatious charities, when at one brush thou 
mightest sweep them all away ! If we do those things 



130 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

which God commands us, does he not say that we have 
done no more than it is our duty to do, nor any more 
than he has commanded us to do ? 

My dear friends, it is one of the bewitcheries of the 
Mother of Harlots, to make a display, parade, and show 
of her breaden god, which was carried pompously un- 
der a canopy. Let not the branches of the Spouse of 
Christ, which are at this day scattered abroad in the 
different societies, be partakers with them in their vain 
shows ; but let them read with carefulness and much 
prayer, 1 Cor. xiii, and 2 Cor. vi. 14, and following 
verses. Let none take encouragement from this, to 
withhold their liberality from the poor ; but I wish you 
so to give that it may be accepted of God, and reject 
Ostentation, as a daughter of that woman who " know- 
eth nothing ;" — whose " feet abide not in her house ;" — 
who loveth to make a public display of her charities, 
abstinence, <fec. If you do not follow her, she becomes 
angry and clamorous against you ; and I assure you, 
" It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a con- 
tentious and angry woman." 

Do not think that my design is to turn these words 
of Solomon from their original meaning, in order to suit 
the subject which I have in hand : — the Holy Ghost 
has made the comparison much stronger than I have. 
The Jewish Church, by departing from the Lord, is 
compared to a harlot. The Lord said unto her, " She 
is not my wife, neither am I her husband : let her, there- 
fore, put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her 
adulteries from between her breasts ;" <fcc. Hos. ii. 2 — 6. 
A large part of this chapter, gives a description of her, 
as a woman that had departed from her husband ; and 
so ignorant was she, that she did not know that it was 
the Lord who gave her corn, and wine, and oil ; and 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 131 

who multiplied her silver and gold which ought to be 
given to the service of the Sanctuary, and to the Lord's 
poor. But contrary to this, she prepared it for Baal ; 
and as a contentious wife troubles the house where she 
dwells, so that church which has departed from 
the simplicity of CPn^ist, does much harm to the Lord's 
people who go for instruction at her hands, and she is 
at this day hastening after the great Mother of Abomi- 
nations, whom she will soon overtake. This great 
Mother is even now viewing the Protestant worship 
with a placid satisfaction, anticipating with delight the 
time when she shall be able to fix her intoxicating cup 
in all the churches, as she formerly did. 

The woman who has bl,own a blast against the 
Spouse with her false trumpet, as I said before, would 
make the world believe that she herself walketh order- 
ly and keepeth the law ; therefore, the better to bring 
the Spouse of Christ into contempt, she charges her 
with forsaking the law. But the Spouse doth not make 
void the law through faith, yea she establisheth the 
law, the law being written upon her heart by the 
Holy Ghost, by whose operation or influence, she is 
enabled to perform works acceptable to God, which, 
without the Holy Ghost, no one can perform. 

It is plainly seen that this clamorous woman does 
not take the law for her only rule, for it is against the 
law of God for a woman to depart from her husband ; 
and if it is unlawful for the wife to depart from her 
husband, (which cannot be doubted,) can it be lawful 
for the Bride of Christ to depart from the Bridegroom 
of the Church, and follow her own traditions ? It can- 
not. But all churches or societies that are led by the 
nose, by this apostate woman, have departed from the 
Lord ; — giving false names ; — calling that charity, 



132 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

which is ostentation and parade ; — calling that tempe- 
rance, which is total abstinence ; — giving false alarms 
against the Spouse, by blowing their trumpet with an 
uncertain sound, lest their hearers should prepare for 
the battle against sin, the world, and the devil ; in- 
stead of which, they prepare war against the Spouse 
of Christ. Then with an impudent face, they tell their 
audience that the world is going to be converted ; — 
that they may with the more ease establish their col- 
leges, — train their young men to their own views, — 
and enable them to live upon the bounty of others 
without work, while the conversion of the heathen is 
their pretence. 

It would be much better if they would send the 
Scriptures in all languages, that they might speak for 
themselves,' and keep their own expositors at home, 
lest they should, by their false glosses put upon the 
Word, come under that wo pronounced by the Lord 
against the Scribes and Pharisees. " Wo unto you. 
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea 
and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, 
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than your- 
selves." " Wo unto you. Scribes and Pharisees ! for 
ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, 
but within they are full of extortion and excess." " Ye 
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear 
beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's 
bones, and all uncleanness." 

This is a certain case with all those who depart 
from the Lord, and give false alarms against the true 
Spouse of Christ, or any branch of her. I testify, 
therefore, unto you, that God will not always endure 
this affront put upon his servants ; — he will most cer- 
tainly arise for his own honor, and the honor of his 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 133 

servants, to vindicate his word spoken by them ; which 
word he will honor more than his oreat name, notwith- 
standing all the protacted meetings, and the many 
prayers of this clamorous woman. Before she has any 
more protracted meetings, let her make her own calling 
and election sure ; and then she will be able to begin 
and continue in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, 
and in breaking of bread, and in prayer. — Then indeed, 
she may protract her meetings, and eat her meat with 
gladness and singleness of heart. 

Then she will teach her virgins [ministers] not to 
run on in their own headstrong way, under the pre- 
tence of converting the heathen, before they themselves 
are converted. — She will then teach them, as our Lord 
did the Apostles, to tarry at Jerusalem until they re- 
ceive power from on high, or until they be regenerated 
and born again of the Spirit, and receive a commission 
from God to go forth and preach his Word. When this 
is the case with her, she will not be put to such sorry 
shifts as to send for theatrical singers, to carry on her 
Concerts of Sacred Music, falsely so called ; that she 
may sell her tickets to the audience, and allure them 
by her fine singers to give their money freely, that she 
may have the means to pay for organs, and to send her 
unconverted young men to convert the heathen. She 
will do away with all Church Fairs, and trafficking after 
the manner of the world and ancient Tyre. She will 
not build churches beyond her means, and then use 
such petty shifts to pay for them, and to decorate them 
with ornaments, as to sell toys and gewgaws at her 
Fairs. 

My dear friends, these things are a scandal to the 
name of God, — " he will not smell in your solemn as- 
semblies ;" but will say unto you, " Take thou away 

12 



134 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

from me the noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear 
the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down 
as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Do 
justice to the Spouse of Christ, who cries unto you by 
the word of the Holy One, and listen to her voice. Do 
not drive his word from your hearts, by wasting your 
precious time in reading such trumpery as most of the 
periodicals and papers are, with which the land is 
deluged. The devil is at the head of all the trash that 
is published, — whatever men may say to the contrary ; 
— he knows that throuo^h the use of these thino^s, the 
Word of God cannot take root. ' Hear the voice of God 
who says in his word : •' Wo unto you that desire the 
day of the Lord ! to what end is it for you ? the day 
of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man 
did flee from a lion, and a bear met him : or went into 
the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a ser- 
pent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be dark- 
ness, and not light ? even very dark, and no brightness 
in it ? T hate, I despise your solemn feast-days," (fcc. 
Amos, V. 18 — 21. " The sacrifice of the wicked is an 
abomination to the Lord." Prov. xv. 8. 

Thus it is plain that God will not honor that church, 
or woman, or harlot, who brings a lie in her right 
hand. In vain do individuals look for conversion at 
her hands ; hov\/' much less then can we look for the 
conversion of the world by her means ! It cannot be. 
People take upon themselves great liberty, and think 
they may believe as they list in this land of Bibles ; and 
although Bibles are so much distributed, it seems 
evident that the donors do not read them ; or if they 
do, they do not understand them, which is plain by 
their calling good, evil, and evil, good. There is a 
certain opinion of an evil tendency which prevails with 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 135 

many — I will not lay it to the charge of this woman in 
the figure, because I do not know whether it originated 
in Church or State ; but by whichsoever it was 
brought forward as an article of belief, it is false. 

This opinion is, that Capital Punishment for murder 
ought to be abolished, because the Lord says, " Thou 
shalt not kill ;" and because it is written, " Love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully 
use you and persecute you." Matt. v. 44. 

They who maintain this opinion, whoever they may 
be, appear to be " wiser in their own conceit than seven 
men that can render a reason." Because the command- 
ment is, " Thou shalt not kill," does it hence follow 
that he that does kill his neighbor wilfully, shall escape 
the just judgment of God who says, " Whoso shed- 
deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for 
in the image of God made he man ?" Gen. ix. 6. 

Some say that this sanguinary law was made for the 
JcAvs only who were a savage race, and that in this 
" Enlightened Age," there is no necessity for such laws, 
because we are a more polished and humane people ; 
and more than this, they say that the Mosaic laws are 
done away by Christ, <fcc. Sec. It is true the Lord 
says, " Thou shalt not kill : and whosoever shall kill 
shall be in danger of the judgment : But I say unto 
you. That whosoever is angry with his brother with- 
out a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment ; and 
whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raca, shall be in 
danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say. Thou 
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Of what judg- 
ment then shall he be in danger, who kills his bro- 
ther? 

Verily God has set up his tribunal of retributive 



136 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

judgment in this world by means of the Civil Magis 
trate, that murderers and other heinous offenders may 
be brought to justice ; and for this reason we are com 
nianded to obey Magistrates, " For rulers are not f 
terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou ther> 
not be afraid of the power ? do that which is good, am 
thou shalt have praise of the same ; For he is the min 
ister of God to thee for good. But if thou do tha*- 
which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not the swore 
in vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to 
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Rom. xiii. 
3, 4. For this cause the mother of Solomon says, " It 
is not for kings, 'O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink 
wine, nor for princes strong drink : Lest they drink, 
and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of 
the afilicted." 

Let them who have the rule in these things, beware 
lest God require the lives of them who set the murderer 
free ; for not only they who kill, are in danger of the 
judgment, but they who are angry with their brethren 
without a cause, are in danger of the judgment. The 
former are in danger of the judgment of the Civil Mag- 
istrate who sits in God's stead in this world, and the 
latter are in danger of the judgment of God after death, 
if they repent not. 

The Civil Magistrate sits on God's earthly tribunal 
which by his authority is set up, and by means of his 
deputies on the earth, God takes vengeance into his 
own hands, as it is written : " Vengeance is mine, I 
will repay." He will repay both the murderer, and 
him who keeps back the murderer from retributive 
justice, as was the case with Ahab, king of Israel, when 
he permitted Benhadad to live, after the blasphemous 
language which he had used against the God of Israel. 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 137 

A prophet met Ahab, and said unto him " Thus saith 
the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thine hand 
a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore 
thy hfe shall go for his life." 1 Kings, xx. 42. 

Shame on you ! whosoever you may be, who call 
the righteous judgment of God, Revenge. Do you 
not fear to open your mouth against the Most High 
and his righteous laws, and call them, when executed 
on criminals, onari's act^ or man^s revenge ? You have 
had the impudence to say that, " all those laws which 
were given to the Jews, with the exception of the Ten 
Commandments, were not the laws of God, but that 
they were the laws of Moses, which he was obliged to 
make for them, because they were so rebellious a peo- 
ple ; but that we, being more humane, polished, &c., 
require no such laws." Behold, my dear friends, if 
you listen to these people, they will send all your souls 
to hell, though they overturn the whole Word of God 
to effect it. There is but one law, (if a law it may be 
called,) that can in anywise be attributed to Moses, and 
for that he had God's permission, otherwise, he would 
not have dared to make it. That was, to give a 
writing of divorcement when they [the Jews] put 
away their wives ; and this, the Lord tells them, was 
done because of the hardness of their hearts, but from 
the beginning it was not so. 

Now let me inquire. With all our boasted superiority 
over the Jews, as a humane and polished people, is 
there no hardness of heart manifested in these days ? 
Do not men leave their wives, and go after strange wo- 
men ? Do not many men kill their wives, and thus 
put them out of their way ? And do not many women 
murder their husbands for the sake of other men ? If 
these humane gentlemen with a polished outside, 

12* 



138 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



I 



know not these things, let them look into the newspa- 
pers, and read the amount of crime therein recorded. 
This will give them other views of the people of these 
davs, whoso hands and hearts are filled with so griev- 
ous pollution. Even they themselves are blind to their 
own deformity and naughtiness of heart and tongue, 
or they would never lift up their voices against God, - 
and call him a liar, which they do in effect, when they 
say that the laws given by jloses were not the laws of 
God. 

The laws given by Moses were the laws of God, and 
none of them are done away, except the Jewish ceremo- 
nial law which was a shadow of Christ to come ; and 
now Christ is come, we hav^e the substance, and the 
shadow is no longer required. 

All the descendants of Adam have the same seeds of 
sin in them as the Jews had, and are no better in them- 
selves than they were. These seeds of sin break out 
more or less in all ; but whether they break out in a 
greater or less degree, we may rest assured that they 
are in the hearts of all who " are naturally engendered 
of the offspring of Adam :" and in this state they must 
for ever remain, until Cln'ist. by the power of his 
Spirit, rescue them from their fallen state, and give un- 
to them the pardon of their sins, and an inheritance 
among the sanctified. They then become free from 
the law as a covenant of works ; for the law is a school- 
master to bring us to Christ, and is called the first hus- 
band ; but when they have received Christ into their 
hearts by faith, their first husband, or the law, has no 
more power over them as lonof as they walk in the 
Spirit, and do not fulfil the lusts of the fiesh ; and 
their blessed Lord leads them to fountains of livinof 
water, by pouring into their hearts the rich influences 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 139 

of the Spirit. But if, after this, they depart in heart 
from him and transgress, their first husband, the law, 
will come again, and claim his relationship, and ex- 
ercise his power and authority over them as usual un- 
til he has brought them into bondage again ; and in 
this state they must lie, until Christ a second time 
put his hand to the work. 

Every unregenerate and unconverted man, — every 
one who is not born of the Spirit, is under the moral 
law, and while he remains so, he is out of Christ, and 
will never see his face with joy, for a God out of Christ, 
" is a consuming fire." Therefore, be it known unto 
every one who may read this book, that the moral law, 
or the laws of God, stand in as full force as they ever 
did, against those who trangress them. — Not only 
against murderers, adulterers, false swearers, and those 
who abuse themselves with mankind, but also against 
those who add any thing to the Word of God, or take 
from the Word or law of God, as it is written : " Ye 
shall not add unto the word which I command you, 
neither shall ye diminish aught from it." Deut. iv. 2. 
" Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, 
and thou be found a liar." Prov. xxx. 6. " For I 
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the 
prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are writ- 
ten in this book : And if any man shall take away from 
the words of the book of this prophecy. God shall take 
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the 
Holy City, and from the things which are written in 
this book." Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

Thus you see that the Word of God stands forever ; 
— not one jot or tittle shall fail. The promises to the 
faithful, and the threatenings to the wicked shall all be 



140 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

fulfilled. " Wo unto them that call evil good, and 
good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for 
darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bit- 
ter !" Isa. V. 20. Wo unto you who wrest the Word 
of God to suit your own purposes ! God will search 
you, and find you out in all your labyrinths. Will you 
speak wickedly for God ? Will you tell lies of God, 
and will God honor you in this. He will not. 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ bring all 
the gainsayers of his word to true repentance, if it be 
his will ; and may he bring together in union and fel- 
lowship all those who love him, and walk by his Word 
and Spirit. Amen. 

A. C. 



January 30th, 1843. 

To J. C . 

My Dear Son, 
You say that you would have been afraid to bring 

Mr. here. I was not accessory to his coming, 

nor have I invited him to come again ; for whether he 
be a man of God or not, there are bars and bolts against 
his coming to our house ; the greatest of which is, that 
he has not yet answered my request, or my petition ; 
and though I may think that he is as much afraid of 
me as I am of him, yet the Word of truth commands 
me not to make haste. I have that in me that would 
fain be in union with the Lord's people ; but I know 
that I must wait until the Lord's time, if it be not un- 
til death rend the veil or partition wall. -* 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 141 

When he was here, I begged him to unite with me 
in prayer to God, according to that promise ; " If two 
of yon shall agree on eartli as touching any thing that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father 
which is in Heaven." 1 told him that he must pray 
in this wise, that those things that were lodged within 
me might come forth ; and that I also would pray for 
him, adding, that if he were a Christian minister, he 
needed my prayers as much as I did his, — all of which 
he acknowledged. Then, said I, you will be mani- 
fested in my conscience, and I also shall be manifested 
in your conscience. 

Many weeks have passed since that time, and he has 
not written to inform me of any answer to his prayers, 
nor whether he has received any communications or 
not ; and you know that he cannot be a true minister, 
if he has no communion with God. All this time I 
have been begging the Most High God to manifest him 
to my conscience, and not to suffer me, by any means, 
to receive him as a Christian brother, if he be not one ; 
for I do not desire to be brought into bondage to him, 
nor indeed to any one, because I know, to my sorrow, 
what such bondage is. 

I take the little book which he has sent me, as a suffi- 
cient answer from God to my prayers. He has pre- 
faced it with a picture of the Trinity, to hold up to 
ridicule those who call the Divine Three, the Triune 
God. He rejects the word person in the Godhead, and 
says, though falsely, that it is not to be found in the 
Scriptures. 

The writer of the creed called the Athanasian Creed, 
acknowledges the Divine Three to be incomprehensible 
to our understanding ; and as such every one must 
take it. The ancients have said as much upon that 



142 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

subject, as can with propriety be said, and we have 
no business to pry any further. The Holy Spirit 
never led him to oppose these things ; and if he had 
been called by God to the ministry, his work would 
not have been to make Christians stumble at the 
Trinity. 

There are other inconsistencies in his book. — He 
uses the phrases of Christians in general, when he 
speaks of God, or of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost ; and 
this, I fear, is done for a blind to hide his real senti- 
ments. He greatly delights in speaking of God in the 
singular number. If you are carried away by such an 
interpreter, it shall not be my fault. A judicious divine 
has said, and I believe it to be true, " Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, being preserved in the Church of God, 
have been the means of keeping in our view the sacri- 
fice of Christ, and the blessings of the Trinity." It 
has been said of the church of Rome, that they have 
not one truth left except this, — that they acknowledge 
the Trinity. 

Thus far I had written before your last letter came, 
the contents of which did not surprise me, being no 
more than what I daily looked for. You see by this, 
that I have not been influenced by your letter nor by 
any person in the world, but by his own writings and 
some few things in which God has instructed me. 

Those thino^s which relate to the suiferings of Christ, I 
leave to those men of God who have gone before us ; 
— who have stood in the gap for us against the adver- 
saries of our Lord ; — and who have come forward 
boldly to fight the Lord's battles : to them I leave all 
controversies of that kind, because I have always 
been in more anxious care to have a clear view of my 
interest in the precious blood of Christ, and of my union 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 



143 



to him by the Spirit of adoption ; and if it could have 
been possible, I would always have preserved a sense 
of my daily walk with him. 

The request that I made to Mr. when he was 

with us, was done to prove him ; and I think it is 
likely that he had enough of the serpent's wisdom to 
see it, as others have before him ; and this, it is prob- 
able, prevented him from sending me any word about 
it. Many boast that they have union and communion 
with God, and that God has shown them this, and 
that, <fec. ; but when the fruits of thai comnunion are 
required at their hands, they can show us nothing but 
their apostasy from God, and endeavor to make us 
apostatize also. 

As he was a stranger, and a foreigner, and as 1 
hoped he was a Christian minister, my heart was 
united to him, until I saw his book, which has con- 
vinced me to the contrary. It is written, — " Neither 
shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause." The 
meaning of this passage, I understand to be this ; If 
his cause be bad, or contrary to the Word of God, it 
then becomes his own cause, and not the cause of God. 
If I were to write, I should have no hope of convincing 
him, and he would have a good opportunity to ser 
monize me upon his erroneous sentiments respecting 
the Trinity. I beg you will not mention my name to 
him again. 

You wish me to give advice whether you ought to 
hear him or not. I will ask you a few questions, and 
then leave it to your own judgment. Has he taught 
you the exceeding sinfulness of your own nature, and 
the anger and wrath of God in his broken law ? Does 
he handle the law lawfully, by endeavoring to convince 
you that it extends to the secret thoughts and intents 



144 



AN OUTCRY FROM THE 



of the heart, and that nothing can cure but the mercy n 
of God through Jesus Christ our Lord ? — That no other 
robe will answer for our clothinof, but the risfhteousness 
of Christ? Does he convince you that your sufferings 
now, or at any former period, were brought upon you 
by your waywardness, or impatience, or by running 
counter to God's most Holy and Blessed Word ? I am 
not condemning you, nor any one else, any more than I 
condemn myself ; for I confess that I am guilty in all 
these particulars ;— chat I bring upon myself great 
troubles by my impatience ; — and that running after 
vanity or false teachers, is not one of the least of my 
sins. Does he cause you to know that God afflicts his 
people, in order to sift them — to try them — and to 
puro-e away their dross, that he may bring them to 
glory through the path of tribulation, as he has pro- 
mised them ? Does he make a proper distinction be- 
tween those who fear God, and a hypocrite? 

When he has to deal with an audience that is not 
acquainted with the depths of Satan, he may hold him- 
self up in the pulpit as a persecuted man, while, at the 
same time, he is only buifeted for his faults. This is 
one of Satan's black arts to catch you who may be un- 
wary, that your pity may be extended to the enemies 
of God ; — that you may take up the matter in favor 
of him who is an enemy to God ; — and that you may 
reject the good counsel of those to whom God has 
given eyes to see through such imposition. By so 
doing, you would reject the friends of God and man, 
and receive his enemies into your favor. After this, he 
will teach you to weep and bewail your own sufferings, 
whether they be real or imaginary, and thus bring you 
to pity yourself This is a strong temptation of Sa- 
tan, yet it is very natural and pleasing to our corrupt 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 145 

passions ; whereas, there is no doubt that, in many in- 
stances, we ought rather to hang down our head, and 
lay our mouth in the dust before a Holy God, because 
of our complicated sins ; for, in most cases of this na- 
ture, our own hearts condemn us. 

I do not wish you to think that your judgment is 
struck at any more than my own, or that oi any other 
person ; as none can know a false teacher until he be 
found out by circumstances, or untJJ his own lips 
declare what he is. I am as tired of being in solitude 
on the Lord's day as you can be, for man was born for 
society ; but, rather than I would be a ringleader of 
those who hold wrong notions of the Trinity, as it is 
handed down to us in the Scriptures, or countenance 
any one who endeavors to sap the foundation of a 
Christian's hope, I would hear at those places which 
were primarily, at least, established upon right princi- 
ples. The awful end of many of those who, you very 
well know, have turned aside from the truth unto the 
father of lies, is a convincing proof to us that we ought 
to " pray without ceasing ;" for our "adversary the devil, 
as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may 
devour." 

In this day of declension, we appear to stand in 
slippery places ; for " He that justifieth the wicked, 
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are 
abomination to the Lord." Therefore, I have always 
made up my mind not to listen to all words that are 
told me, whether by friends or foes, when T suspect 
thatjhey only judge by hearsay, and have not proved, 
or cannot prove the truth for themselves. No man 
must be condemned unheard. We are commanded to 
try the spirits, and to prove them, which there would 
be no necessity for us to do, if they had proved them- 

13 



146 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

selves ; and none can do this but they who are bom 
of the Spirit. " For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, 
the deep things of God.'' 

They who have a well furnished head, may easily 
find out those who preach false doctrine; but it is not 
so easy to find out one who preaches according to the 
letter of Scripture, or who has learned his doctrine from 
the precepts of men ; because he, Uke a hireling as he 
is, whose own the sheep are not, cometh to steal, to kill, 
and to destroy. For, when the wolf cometh, or when 
difiiculties arise, he cannot rest himself upon the arm 
of God's Providence, who always takes care of his 
own ministers, but, without seeing his way clear, or 
waiting for the Lord's direction, he flies in search of 
other places where he can be hidden for a time. 

We may hear such men as those for a long while 
without suspecting their craft ; and, speaking after the 
manner of men, God is obliged to pluno-e us into the 
furnace of great afiiiction, that we may be driven to so 
great straits as to be compelled to try their skill as 
spiritual physicians ; and then, by their unskilful ness 
and emptiness, the nakedness of their souls is discover- 
ed, and we, by this means, become fools for Christ's 
sake, that we may find out the wise in their own 
craftiness. I do assure you that I would rather be one 
of this stamp, and be held up before the audience of 
any minister, as a fool, to the scorn, and coniempt, and 
derision of those whom he might influence, than be the 
man who does it. When such men can bring their 
hearers to feed upon chafl*, they rejoice ; but their joys 
are not of God. And though these things are trying 
to the flesh, yet in the spirit we see Jesus putting forth 
his streno;th in our behalf: for when we c^re weakest in 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 147 

ourselves, then are we strong in the grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

I do not wish you to hear any one who puts as 
many stumbling-blocks in your way as this man has. 
His vain opinions about what he calls, " their gospel 
law," and other notions that he holds which are con- 
trary to the truth, you may see in his book ; and these, 
together with the dogmatizing manner in which he 
tries to propagate them, are all stumbling-blocks ; and 
the wicked, or they who cannot discern their right 
hand from their left in spiritual things, are caught by 
them; but "The righteous shall hold on his way, 
and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and 
stronger." We are all blind by nature, and therefore, 
God's ministers will endeavor to open our eyes, that 
we may see and shun the stumbling-blocks upon 
which others have stumbled and fallen. But these 
teachers despise the dominion of God in his Word ; — 
their lips are their own : who is Lord over them ? as it 
is written : " Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile 
the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities." 
The dignities meant here, are God, his Word, and his 
people, whom it is, and has been the policy of false 
teachers, to crush ; therefore they are not afraid to 
speak evil of God's ministers ; but the Most High God 
punished Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses, 
— and shall these escape ? 

If we, after what the Lord has done for us, cannot 
find Christ in our own closets, we are not likely to find 
him in any other place. If we drink in the wine of 
superstition or false doctrine in any shape, God, if he 
has any favor towards us, and if we belong to him, will 
compel us to drink as much of the wine of his wrath 
as will make us throw it all up again, to our own con- 



148 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

fusion. I beseech you to be thankful for tne pure 
Word of God, althouo^h it comes from so poor an object. 
I am poor in spirit, — poor in utterance, — and in very 
deed, I am not ricii in any thing, except in the grace 
of my Lord and my God ; and, as I have often said, I 
am obliged to walk with crutches — you know what I 
mean. 

My care for you makes me, as Paul the Apostle 
says to the Galatians. '' travail in birth again" for you, 
being anxious to live to see Christ formed in you the 
hope of immortal glory ; for we do indeed live in the 
enemy's land, and I am so exceedingly jealous of the 
god of this world — even the prince of the power of the 
air, because I know his malice towards me, and how 
much he lies in wait to deceive me and mine, that it 
causes me to ponder the path of my feet. 

What I say unto you I say unto all, — to your brother 
and sisters, and to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ 
in sincerity. 

Your rejoicing, yet afflicted Mother, 

A. C. 



New York, February — , 1843 

To Mr. * * * *. 

Sir, 
I must tell you that I thought the time long before I 
heard from you, having had a great desire to converse 
with you, and to hear you preach ; for, by your deport- 
ment when my son brought you here, and by your 
conversation at our house, T thought I should now have 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 149 

a "companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and 
patience of Jesus," and a friend with whom I could at 
least correspond, which is what I have been seeking 
for the last twenty years. 

I continued to hear good accounts of your preaching, 
and that you were persecuted for Christ's sake, as I 
thought. I knew by experience that in these days of 
darkness, wherein that light which is so much boasted 
of, is darkness, no one who has the cause of God and 
his true religion at heart, can escape persecution. But 
what was my disappointment when your book arrived ! 
O sir ! how did I admire that hand which kept me 
from visiting you, or hearing you preach! being well 
convinced of the propriety of that scripture, " He that 
believeth shall not make haste." 

It is with great grief that I write, and I fear now 
more than ever, that I shall have to travel to the grave 
alone. Be not offended because I sent you that book, 
for I said I would not enter into controversy with you ; 
because if you would not hear what that man of God had 
to say on the subject of your book, I was most certain 
that you would not hear me, and that you would dis- 
dain to be confronted by me ; but when I received 
your letter, I then said that silence would be sinful in 
the cause of Christ and his truth. I therefore tell you 
plainly, I fear neither men or devils, when I stand up 
for Christ, or the truth as it is in him. My Lord and 
my God has anointed me with his Holy Spirit. He 
[the Spirit] causes me to sit at his feet, while he re- 
ceives of the things of Christ, and shows them to me, 
and I write them. This is the case with me every 
time I write a letter, and that is according to our Lord's 
words to his disciples when he was about to be separ- 
ated from them. He promised to send them another 

13* 



150 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

Comforter, who should abide with them for ever. These 
words I find to be true in me ; for when I have done 
writing, and his comforting presence is withdrawn in a 
great measure from me, I then find him strong in me 
with holy wrestling, and groanings of soul which can- 
not be uttered. "And he that searcheth the hearts 
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he 
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will 
of God ! This sis^hins: and orroaning: of soul has been 
on me, more or less, ever since you left our house. 
Therefore, I know what I am about, and do not con- 
tend with carnal weapons ; — nor fight so as to beat the 
air ; — nor blow the trumpet with an uncertain sound. 
He that set me on, has undertaken for me, and will be 
with me unto the end. All glory and praise be unto the 
Father, Son, and Spirit, for ever. Amen. I pray him 
to be with me, and deliver me from the power of Sa- 
tan in subtle and designing men ; for all men have not 
faith that pretend to have it. 

When we first hear a minister, we expect he will 
give some account, first, of his call by grace; secondly, 
of his call to the ministry. If he give satisfaction in 
these particulars, (and he ought, more especially if he be 
a foreigner,) we expect him, thirdly, to take up the 
stumbling-blocks out of the way of God's people ; and 
he knows there are stumbling-blocks enough in the 
Apostate Protestant Church at this time: we therefore 
do not wish to add to them by stumbling at the God- 
head of Christ ; — nor at the manhood of Christ ; — nor 
at the Trinity, as too many do. 

How can you say you believe in the Trinity with 
one breath, and yet deny it with another ? I would 
fain believe you have not put that picture in the front 
of your book, to hold the Trinity up to ridicule. Sir, 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 151 

you cannot understand the Trinity, neither can the 
wisest man living. All rightly informed men acknow- 
ledge three persons in the Godhead, as the Apostles 
did, and as the Scriptures testify ; yet, it is incompre- 
hensible to our understanding, and we have no business 
to pry any further than the written Word ; for none by 
searching can find out God. You say, " The word 
person in the Trinity is not to be found in the New 
Testament." Does not the writer of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews say that our Lord Jesus Christ is the " bright- 
ness of the Father's glory, and the express image of 
his person?" And in some other part of the New 
Testament, the Apostle Paul says, when speaking of 
him, " the person of Christ." Indeed, sir, you cannot 
in our language speak of the Divine Three, unless you 
do say person ; but to come out clear from this, you 
will no doubt say that the Scriptures are wrongly 
translated, as most men do who live in error. " The grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
communion of the Holy Ghost." What do you intend 
to make of such language? Does it not point out 
three ? How can three persons be without a Trinity, 
or how can a Trinity be without three persons ? 

You say again that each one has not a different of- 
fice, as it is believed by many. — Then what does Jesus 
mean when he says, " No man can come unto me, ex- 
cept the Father which hath sent me, draw him ? The 
Father sets before the sinner his law which he has 
broken, and sometimes the sinner is under bondage to 
the broken law of God for many years ; yet I do not 
say that the Spirit has no hand in this, I believe he has 
a great hand in it. The Spirit proceeds from the Fa- 
ther and the Son ; therefore, the Spirit from the Father 
shows the sinner his transgression by the law of God, 



152 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

which he has broken in many ways ; and while he is 
in this state, he is under the Avrath and anger of God, 
and can find no rest day nor night, until the set time 
come when God will give him deliverance by the par- 
don of his sins through Jesus Christ. Then he [the 
Spirit] takes of the things of Christ, and shows them 
to the sinner ; — he shows him that he could never ful- 
fil the broken law of God; he shows him that Christ 
has fulfilled it in his stead ; — and that Christ has made 
a full and perfect satisfaction to the Father in behalf 
of his people. The Spirit shows him that Christ has 
made atonement for him, and wrought out a righteous- 
ness in which he must be clothed, and be made a par- 
taker of the blessings of the gospel of peace. You may 
see that there is a difference in the oflice of each, al- 
though the union and agreement are manifest. 

What shall I say? You have wisely, or craftily 
named only those scriptures which speak of God in 
the singular number ; yet God, in some parts of Scrip- 
ture, speaks of himself in the plural ; as in Genesis, 
" Let us make man in our image," &c. When our 
Lord was baptized, there came a voice from Heaven 
saying, " This is my beloved Son," and the Spirit like 
a dove descended upon him in a bodily shape, which 
three make a Trinity. " The Father loveth the Son, 
and showeth him all things that himself doeth." " The 
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
ment unto the Son : That all men should honor the 
Son, even as they honor the Father." " For as the Fa- 
ther hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son 
to have life in himself" Thus it is evident that the 
Father is not the Son ; nor is the Son the Father ; 
neither is the Father or the Son the Holy Ghost, which 
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and will be in 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 153 

the Church until the end of time. We read that the 
Holy Ghost said, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for 
the work whereunto I have called them." Again ; 
The Holy Ghost would not suffer some to preach the 
word in Asia. " They then assayed to go into Bithy- 
nia : but the Spirit suffered them not." In these in- 
stances the Holy Ghost did not speak from Heaven, as 
the Father did at the baptism of Christ ; nor as Christ 
did when he spoke unto Paul on his way to Damascus ; 
but the Spirit spoke home to their hearts and conscien- 
ces, as being always with them. I might multiply 
scriptures ; but if you will not hear, it is only a waste 
of time ; yet I do sincerely hope you will hear, and 
profit by it. 

My dear sir, I had hoped better things of you. The 
first part of your book, appears to be a jumble of mat- 
ters put together in confusion, and left for us to guess 
at your meaning ; and if I guess rightly, you say that 
the sacrifice of Christ was intended only for the breach 
of that law which God gave to Moses ; and you call 
the blessed gospel of God, " their gospel law ;" but we 
are left in the dark as to what you can mean by " their 
gospel law ;" therefore, we must guess again ; and if I 
guess rightly, you mean Paul and all true Christians. 
" For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath 
made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 
2. " Where is boasting then ? It is excluded. By 
what law ? of works ? Nay ; but by the law of faith." 
Rom. iii. 27. Now I ask. Who can do a good work 
acceptable to God until he be born of God, and know 
God ; — until Christ, by his Spirit, work for him, and m 
him of his own good pleasure ? How can you assert 
that there is no satisfaction for sins against the gospel 
of Christ? If so, then wo be to all persecutors, 

20 



154 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

especially Paul the Apostle, and those Jews who killed 
the Lord of life. 

Sir, you boast of chapter and verse for every thing 
you advance, but you certainly forget yourself. Pre- 
sumptuous sinners are unpardonable both in the old 
law and in the gospel. Sins of ignorance are pardon- 
able in the Old Testament and in the New. David 
prays to be kept from presumptuous sins, and we have 
all as much reason as he to pray for the same for our- 
selves. 

O my dear friend ! (I fain would call you thus,) do 
not you presumptuously deny that which you cannot 
comprehend concerning the Trinity; "For our God 
is a consuming fire." If any one do aught maliciously 
against the true gospel, (I do not say you do,) or sin 
against the Holy Ghost, which, I believe, means the 
same thing, he hath no forgiveness either in this world, 
or in the next. The fourth of Leviticus will show you 
the sins of ignorance under the law ; and in gospel 
times, Paul sinned through ignorance, as many others 
have done, and therefore, obtained mercy. Our Lord 
says, " Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son 
of man," meaning himself, " it shall be forgiven him." 
Then, of course, there must be efficacy enough in the 
blood of Christ to pardon such sinners. Now sir, I ask, 
What can you mean when you tell us that Christ has 
not sufiered death for transgressions under the gospel, 
or, as you term it, " their gospel law ?" 

In page 24th of your book, there is another piece of 
ambiguity. You say, " There are numbers of teachers 
whose names are written in the chronicles of modern 
Christianity, as unerring guides to immortal souls, whose 
confidence seems to arise from, and whose happiness 
consists in turning up the filth of the flesh. Their 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 155 

watchword is, ' The man that knoweth nothing of such 
and such earthly, sensual, and devilish filthiness, is no 
Christian.' " Now, sir, I guess again, as well as I am 
able, that you call that " modern Christianity," which is 
the work of the Spirit upon the soul of man, to show 
him his lost estate, his earthly mindedness, and the 
corruptions of his heart, which, before his conversion to 
God, is only evil, and that continually. 

I believe you think that a person can come unto God 
without a law-work on his conscience ; and that, as 
many more affirm, he is drawn by love, and feels 
neither the terrors of God in his law, nor his natural 
enmity to God, nor the sting of guilt in his conscience ; 
and then, of course, he cannot feel the plague of his own 
heart, as Solomon says, 1 Kings, viii. 38 ; and as 
Paul says, Rom. vii. 24. How does the Church of 
old cry out for her iniquities ! Micah, vii. 9 ; Ps. li ; 
and many other parts of God's Word. And many that 
have been partakers of the benefits of Christ's death, 
have sinned, backslidden, and brought upon themselves 
unutterable woes ; and though God fills the backslider 
in heart with his own ways, and causes him to walk 
in bitterness of soul ; yet, if he seek unto the Lord in 
earnest, God will pardon his iniquity. 

Now, sir, if I have guessed wrongly, and falsified 
your meaning, I most humbly beg your pardon. I have 
always thought that a preacher sent from God, is, or 
ought to be an explainer of the Word of God ; but you 
call such explanations, " human traditions," and you 
call the truth, " modern Christianity.'' Then you 
would do well to preach the Old and New Testaments 
only,— beginning at Genesis, and ending at Revela- 
tions ; for, if the Gospel is to be explained away, and 
called human traditions, we had better hear the pure 



156 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

Word itself, and do without such explanations, — it 
would even be to our advantage. 

When a minister is fitted for the office of preaching, 
he speaks plain language, and uses " sound speech 
which cannot be condemned ;" — he brings his language 
to the meanest capacity ; — his preaching or writing is 
not filled with ambiguity ; but that is not the case 
with yours, as I have heard from the mouth of three 
witnesses, neither of whom could understand your 
preaching ; and I know I cannot understand your 
writing in any other way than as I have answered it, 
for I have been obliged to guess all throughout. 

You say that '• God has taught you himself more 
perfectly." O sir ! many false spirits have gone out 
into the world, and you have not proved that spirit by 
which you are led. This is very evident ; for the 
Spirit of God is not the dictator of that jumble of con- 
fusion which is to be seen in your writings. "With re- 
gard to Mr. H n's writings, they must speak for 

themselves. I think he knew his men, and what he 
was about, which I could not know. If there be any 
thing wrong in them, it must lie at his own door. 

Sir, we do not believe that there are three separate 
Godheads, any more than you do ; — that seems to be a 
whim of your own brain, to make a confusion, and to 
set others to cavil and dispute that with which we have 
no business ; and I am sure it is not for edification, but 
for the destruction of souls. However, this we do be- 
lieve, — that there are three persons in the Godhead, 
and these three are one ; you can expect none to hear 
you except Arians, Socinians, Sabellians, (fee. <fec. 

By the latter part of your letter, I should take you 
for a Swedenborgian ; for Swedenborg says that the 
Godhead is in the Son, and that the Father and the 



i 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 157 

Holy Ghost are only names ; but Sabellius says that 
the Godhead is in the Father, and that the Son and the 
Holy Ghost are only names. You take care to name 
Father, Son, and Spirit in your writings ; but who can 
believe that you think there are such in the Godhead ? 
Errors in practice are bad enough ; but erroneous prin- 
ciples are worse, because they lead to destruction. 

In the religious world, there are men who hold them- 
selves up in the pulpit as being under great persecu- 
tion, and fish after the feelings of their hearers, when, 
at the same time, they are only buffeted for their faults. 
I have seen enough of this to make me sick of pulpit 
oratory. I thank God he has called me out from 
among them ; and v/hen he did so, he showed me by 
infallible proofs, that " the best of them," among whom 
I had been, " is as a brier, and the most upright is 
sharper than a thorn hedge." If we are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake, happy are we ; for the Spirit of 
glory and of God resteth upon us ; but if we suffer as 
evil-doers, as murderers, as thieves, or as busy-bodies 
in other men's matters, this is not suffering according 
to the will of God ; — nor is it being partakers of the 
sufferings of Christ ; — nor is it filling up that which is 
behind of the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake, 
which is the Church. 

There are other murderers than those who take away 
life ; — false teachers destroy both soul and body. There 
are also other thieves and robbers than those who rob 
on the highway, or steal our goods and money. There 
are preachers who steal their neighbor's writings, and 
preach them as their own, (though I will not say that 
you do this, for I have never seen any writings like 
yours,) but whoever does it, God will not accept such 
robbery for burnt-offering. It is written, — " The thief 

14 



158 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

Cometh not, but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy ;" 
and though they take not men's lives, (false teachers I 
mean,) yet they blind the eyes, — confuse the under- 
standing, — and shut them up in bondage to their false 
reasoning, until they have made them as bad as them- 
selves ; and " if it were possible, they would deceive the 
very elect." There are busy-bodies also in spiritual 
things, and there are they who trouble their heads 
about the concerns of their neighbors. " These be 
they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the 
Spirit." There are also they who know nothing about 
that inward call to the work of the ministry, of which 
all the ministers of Christ must know something, be- 
fore they enter into that sacred office, unless they enter 
presumptuously. 

You have named eight portions of Scripture, pre- 
tending to show for what law Christ died ; but you 
have proved nothing by them in the least. The Lord 
open your eyes, and give you to see, know, and feel 
the power of his precious blood to your soul's health. 

By all that I can gather from your writings, you 
have not experienced the cutting, killing, and condemn- 
ing power of the law ; and if you have not felt some- 
thing of this, you are not yet delivered from its con- 
demning power ; and if you are not delivered from its 
condemning power^ it appears to me that you must be 
ignorant of the Gospel of Christ, — this is sufficiently 
manifest by your writings. 

The Lord give you grace and favor to come unto 
him, that you may learn of him who is meek and 
lowly in heart, and that you may find true faith, eye 
salve, white raiment, and right knowledge, is the 
desire of 

Your Soul's Well wisher, A. 0. 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 159 

February 22d, 1844. 
To J. C . 



My Dear Son, 

As I have no doubt that the Lord will be with me 
while I write, I will endeavor to recollect the manner 
in which I obtained what I wrote on music, some years 
ago, and the cause that impelled mc to do it. Accord- 
ing to my recollection, the circumstance was as fol- 
lows : — 

When your sister began to learn music, I did not, at 
first, think so much of the evil of it as I did afterwards* 
having had the advice of a man, who appeared to be 
of much higher standing in the things of God than we ; 
therefore I consented to let her learn, although it was 
against my better judgment. However, when I medi- 
tated upon it, as I afterwards did, and saw with what 
impropriety they who truly believe in Christ, allow 
their children to learn music, as it is now used, I was 
much alarmed, and such was my fear that the anger 
of God would burst forth upon me for permitting it, 
that I became quite sick, and entreated your father 
that she might give it up ; and he and your sister both 
consented. 

The next thing that troubled me, was your begin- 
ning to learn the Piano-Forte business. Alas ! thought 
J, we have done away with music for the daughters, 
and shall we seek it for the son ? Will it not lay him 
open to all the temptations to which musicians are 
exposed ? Ought we not to desire honest trades for our 
children, that they may live in the fear of God ? And 
can they do this, while their hearts are led away by 
music ? Do not the people, even now, make that which 



160 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

ought to be the house of God, a house of merchaudise, 
by Oratorios, or that which they falsely call sacred 
music ; to hear which every one who goes must pay? 
Will God accept such services at their hands, be their 
pretences what they may ? Never, never. 

After these meditations, I mentioned my troubles to 
your father and a third person. At length we con- 
cluded to submit this case to God, by prayer and some 
degree of abstinence for three days ; and I know that 
this was done according to the will of God, because he 
led me to consider his dealings with the Jews in the 
days of the prophet Haggai, who reproved the people 
when they said that it was not time that the Lord's 
house should be built, by saying unto them, " Is it time 
for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this 
house lie waste ? Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord 
of hosts, Consider your ways." Then he goes on to 
tell them that it was their own sins that hindered the 
building, and caused those severe judgments which 
are enumerated in the 11th verse, to come upon them. 
The allusion seemed to me, at that time, to be very 
striking, and I reasoned thus : — Will God accept us 
as his Church, if we teach our sons and daughters mu- 
sic, and thus cause them to ran after the follies of this 
wicked world? " If any man love the world, the love 
of the P'ather is not in him." 

Truly the same language is applicable in these wo- 
ful days. Is it time for you, O ye who name the 
name of Christ and his true religion, to teach your 
daughters music, or to make a trade of it for your sons, 
while you have before your eyes the fearful Apostasy 
of the Protestant Church, which is caused, in part, by 
the introduction of music into the churches, to please 
the ear, and to delight the senses by its unlawful use ? 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 161 

— ^Is it time for you, O ye, to be delighted with the 
sound of the harp and organ, in that place where our 
Most Blessed Lord, who is the sum and substance of 
all the Scriptures, is not to be found? 

O my dear friends ! does the Lor^ call you to rejoice 
at this awful calamity? And do you indeed drive him 
out of your churches, by the sound of the harp and or- 
gan ? And do you indeed drive him out of your 
houses, by your ill-timed piano-fortes ? Does not the 
Lord call to weeping, and to mourning, and to bald- 
ness, and to girding with sackcloth for these things? 
What recompense do you expect to gain for so great 
a loss as that of the Bridegroom ? Hear what the 
Lord says : " Take thou away from me the noise of 
thy songs ; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols," 
Amos, V. 23. " Ye that put far away the evil day, 
and cause the seat of violence to come near ; That lie 
upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their 
couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the 
calves out of the midst of the stall ; That chant to the 
sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments 
of music, like David ; That drink wine in bowls, and 
anoint themselves with the chief ointments ; but they 
are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." Amos, 
vi. 3 — 6. 

By the affliction of Joseph, is meant the Church of 
God, that is generally in tribulation, because the Lord 
says that it shall be so ; but much more is she in tribu- 
lation in this day of Apostasy. She is obliged to hide 
her head in corners, and worship her Lord wheresoever 
she can find a place. Hear what the Lord says in the 
7th verse : " Therefore now shall they go captive with 
the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that 
stretched themselves shall be removed." Again, it is 

14* 



162 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

written, — " They send forth their little ones like a flock, 
and their children dance. They take the timbrel and 
harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They 
spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down 
to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart 
from us ; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 
Job, xxi. 11 — 14. Again ; '• Wo unto them that rise 
up early in the morning, that they may follow strong 
drink ; that continue until night, till wine inflame 
them ! And the harp and the viol, the tabret and the 
pipe, and wine, are in their feasts ; but they regard not 
the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of 
his hands. Therefore my people are gone into captiv- 
ity, because they have no knowledge ;" (fee. Isa. v. 
11—13. 

It was the heathen Babylonish Church that began 
their worship with all kinds of music ; as, " the cornet, 
flute, harp, sacbut, psaltery, dulcimer," &c. Hear 
what the Lord says of Mystical Babylon : " And the 
voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and 
trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee ; and 
no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found 
any more in thee ;" dec. And this is applicable to 
every <ihurch in which Christ is not by his Spirit and 
Word. 

Our modern Pharisees make a great ado with their 
total abstinence from wine ; — they can " strain at a 
gnat, and swallow a camel ;" but God considers the 
harp, the viol, the piano-forte, and all kinds of music, 
as dangerous, or more so, to the soul. I am quite sure 
of this, — that wine or strong drink is not the only 
thing that intoxicates. Oratorios of singing and music 
intoxicate ; — envy, hatred, and malice intoxicate ; — 
midnight revels and mid-day revels intoxicate j — cov©- 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 163 

toiisness and all the filthy lusts of the flesh intoxicate ; 
— heresies, idleness, and such like, are all the works 
of the flesh ; and they intoxicate the senses as much 
as wine does ; and so do false hypocritical shows of 
pretended good works. One sin is left out of the horrible 
catalogue ; but God requires that his Church should 
forsake the whole. — God requires all the heart or no- 
thing. If the daughters of Christian parents want 
amusement, let them seek it by doing good to their fel- 
low creatures. If they would do this, when they 
have it in their power, they would soon find objects. 

David did indeed use music, but it was to help him 
to praise God withal ; and for the same reason Luther 
used it, — for the praise and glory ot God. Luther had 
great cause to praise God with all the instruments that 
he could get ; for he had found the Lord his God, who 
had been lost to the visible church for many ages ; but 
now, where is he to be found? Not in the visible 
church, therefore, they have no cause to handle the 
harp and organ, but to weep, to mourn, and to lament. 
O my God ! these are the men who send thy Scriptures 
into foreign lands, and yet live in that wilful abuse of 
them at home ! Carnal hearts can never sing spiritual 
songs unto God. 

Mr. Huntington, in his correspondence with a friend, 
says, " I found myself greatly disgusted at that musical 
instrument that I saw in your apartments ; and by its 
being open, I judged that you had been playing on it. 
It is one of the devil's rattles, intended to keep a cry- 
ing conscience quiet. He was one of the cursed race 
of Cain, and the offspring of polygamy, that first in- 
vented those nmsical traps : ' Jubal was the father of 
all such as handle the harp and organ.' Gen. iv. 21. 
And Job says, they are the children of the wicked that 



164 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

* take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound 
of the organ.' I know you have your answer ready 
from the Psalms : ' Praise him with the sound of the 
trumpet : praise him with the psaltery and harp. 
Praise him with the timbrel and dance ; praise him 
with stringed instruments and organs.' Get you first 
David's faith and David's God, and then talk of David's 
joys and music. 

" The Jews were more taken with music than with 
their God, and therefore he gave them their fill of it, 
from a royal band in the plain of Dura, when they 
were invited to a strange dedication, and commanded, 

* at the sound of the cornet, flute, <fec., to worship the 
golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.'" 

The immortal Cowper, speaking of a clergyman who 
was fond of music, says, " I believe that wine itself, 
though a man be guilty of habitual intoxication, does 
not more debauch and befool the natural understanding, 
than music, always music, music in season and out of 
season, weakens and destroys the spiritual discernment, 
if it is not used with an unfeigned reference to the wor- 
ship of God, and with a design to assist the soul in the 
performance of it." 

The world loves its own, therefore, the world will 
have its music, its feasts, its revelries, (fee. The Lord 
calls his own people to come out from the world, and 
not to touch any of their unclean things ; but to bear a 
faithful testimony against its wicked proceedings. The 
church in its present state, is the world in disguise : it 
is united with the world ; but what says the Scripture ? 
" What concord hath Christ with Belial 7 or what part 
hath he that believeth with an infidel ? And what 
agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?" We 
may truly answer, None ; for no man of God will unite 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 165 

himself with the visible church now, if he know what 
he is about. 

I am informed that the ladies of Mr. S s' church, 

have recently given a fair, or festival, which was held 
at the United States Hotel ; the object of which was, to 
collect money for the use of the church. The price of 
admittance was half a dollar. It is reported that they 
hired a ventriloquist to amuse the people, and that 
several songs were sung accompanied with the piano- 
forte. It is also reported that there was great confusion, 
and that the refreshments were ravenously seized by 
the people, who thought of nothing but the gratification 
of their sensual appetites. This begging feast was 
kept up till twelve o'clock at night, when the company 
were dismissed with the song " Sweet Home." They 
collected eleven hundred dollars.* 

* The following advertisement of the above Festival appeared in the 
Journal of Commerce of Jan. 25th 1844 : — 

Unprecedented Entertainment at the United States Hotel, coiner of 
Pearl and Fulton streets, on Thursday evening, the 25th January, 1844. 

1 . The Ladies of the Nassau street Congregation will commence their 
Annual Festival in the spacious Saloons of the United States Hotel, on 
Thursday evening, the 25th inst., precisely at 7 o'clock. The Festival 
will close at 11 o'clock. The windows on Pearl and Water streets will 
be brilliantly illuminated. 

2. Professor Bronson, who, by a happy combination of extensive science, 
with commanding powers of Oratory, is attracting multitudes in other 
parts of the city, has generously tendered his services for the evening. At 
suitable intervals he will deliver several of his most entertaining and in- 
structive Recitations. He will also give an exposition and exemplifica- 
tion of Ventriloquism. 

3. Professor Nash, whose vocal powers will bear comparison with any 
musical performer in the United States, has also consented to be present. 
Several Duets, Solos, and other pieces may be expected during the eve- 
ning. The Professor will be accompanied by Miss Dobson on one of At- 
will's grand pianos. The sweet and unaffected vocal and musical per- 
formances of Miss Dobson would alone enrich any entertainment. 

4. Tickets 50 cents for a Gentleman and 25 cents for a lady, may be 
obtained at the United States Hotel, Pearl street House, &c. 



166 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

I understand that Dr. H ^'s congelation have 

had a Fair, which they held at Niblo's. 

The following is the purport of a handbill which 
was lately posted up in the city : — " The Ladies of the 
Fourth Congregational Church, will give a Festival and 
Fair, in the afternoon and evening of the 14th of Feb., 
1844, [Valentine's Day,] in the large and splendid 
Tivoli Saloon, corner of Yarick and Charlton streets. 
The object is to obtain money to build a new place of 
worship. Tickets for sale at the door." I am informed 
that they collected a thousand dollars. This was Dr. 
W 's congregation. 

Here we may exclaim, O horrible profanation ! O 
terrible violation ! O shocking, hideous, and enor- 
mous irreverence of God's Most Holy Majesty ! O 
lamentable abuse of his Holy Word and ways ! If, in 
the Law of Moses, no impure thing was to be offered 
unto God ; — if the '• hire of a whore, or the price of 
a dog," was not to be offered unto him ; — how much 
less will he accept the hire of such unlawful assem- 
blies and midnight revels ! If God refused the help 
of the Samaritans, when they offered to assist the Jews 
in building their second Temple, because they were 
heathens, and consequently enemies, is it possible to 
suppose for one moment, that he will accept the profits 
arising from the conventicles of these people who set 
not God before their eyes ; but follow their own pas- 
sions, and their own appetites, and waste their precious 
time in the songs and music of the adversary ? 

In the third Epistle of John, it is thus written : " Be- 
cause that for his name's sake they went forth, taking no- 
thing of the Gentiles." Why did not the Apostles take 
any thing of the Gentiles ? Because their Great 
Lord and Master would not permit them to go unto the 



BROKEN WALLS OP ZION. 167 

enemy for help. He will do his own work, by his own 
servants, and in his own way. His servants go forth 
to preach his Word truly and faithfully. This Word, 
by the power and application of the Spirit, sinks deep 
into the hearts of his people, and produces true con- 
version. This Holy Word, in the hands of the Spirit, 
turns enemies into friends : — then they become friends 
to God and man ; — then their offering is acceptable un- 
to God ; — and then they willingly administer to the 
wants of the Lord's servants. 

In like manner they helped the Apostles in their 
necessities and in their journeys. Having first received 
their spiritual things, they did not spare to make them 
partakers of their own carnal things. Our Lord Jesus 
Christ required no help from the enemy at that time, 
neither does he now, nor will he accept any. He can 
build his own Church, and will do so, notwithstanding 
all the power of the adversaries against it ; and this is 
plainly seen in the Old and New Testaments. 

Be not you grieved nor cast down, although the ene- 
my seems to have all the power in his own hands, and 
to have set himself strenuously against the truth in me 
for many years ; for it is not the first time that the 
Church of God has been hidden in corners, or has wan- 
dered about not knowing where to find the bread of life. 
It was worse for them when " they wandered in deserts, 
and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." 

In this letter I have set down as much as I could recol- 
lect of what I wrote many years ago ; to which I have 
made some additions, and introduced several quotations. 

The Lord bless thee and thine, and give unto every 
one of us a praying heart and waiting faith. " To God 
only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ, for ever. Amen." 
Your affectionate Mother, A. C. 



1G8 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

February 24th, 1844. 

To the Same. 

My Dear Son, 

" Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from 
above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, 
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turn- 
ing." Jam. i. 17. God the Father has given his people 
unto Christ, who has become Surety for them. He has 
redeemed them to himself by his most precious blood, 
which he shed for them, to wash, to cleanse, and to 
sanctify " to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, 
or wrinkle, or any such thing." Consequently, they 
are not their own but his. He is Lord over them to 
direct them in all their ways. In all their difficulties 
they come to him by prayer, to know his mind or 
will concerning them ; and if he does not answer them 
as readily as they wish, they then " stand still and see 
the salvation of the Lord," and wait for his will in all 
their movements or undertakings. 

It was for this cause, that I wrote that which God 
gave me in answer to the prayers which we oflfered to 
him on the subject of suretiship. When any good gift 
cometh down from the Father to us for our own 
guidance, we may be certain that it is not intended for 
us alone, but for the whole Church of Christ : there- 
fore, this letter must be sent abroad to the members of 
the mystical body of Christ ; for we are all members o{ 
Christ's body, and members one of another. — I mean 
those of us who belongf to Christ. 

I was requested to give my opinion, whether it was 
right that a Christian man should insure his property 
from losses by fire. I answered that I could not tell ; 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 169 

but that I thought that every one must act in that ac- 
cording to his own faith ; for I had not received any 
light from God on the subject. I had, indeed, heard 
some people say that it ought not to be done ; but as 
they did not give any reason, I thought but little about 
it. However, when I began to meditate on that same 
subject, behold, these words forcibly struck me, with 
light and power from above : — " He that hateth sureti- 
ship is sure." Prov. xi. 15. I understand this passage 
thus : — He who has Christ for his Surety, hateth the 
suretiship of the world. I say then to every one who 
is born of the Spirit, Christ has become your Surety, 
not only to redeem you from hell, but to secure to you 
daily bread ; for he says to his disciples, " Therefore I 
say unto you. Take no thought for your life, what ye 
shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your 
body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than 
meat, and the body than raiment? For after all these 
things do the Gentiles seek." Matt. vi. 25, 32. 

We see daily that the men of this world most anx- 
iously seek for riches ; and when they have obtained 
their wishes, and gained that which they sought, they 
are altogether as anxious to secure or insure their pro- 
perty. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says, " What \ 
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye 
are not your own ? For ye are bought with a price ; 
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, 
which are God's." If we cannot trust God with our 
property, how can we glorify him, or whom else can 
we trust ? If we are Christ's, our possessions are his, 
and must be given up whensoever he shall think meet 
to call for them. Even they who do insure are' not 
more safe. I have heard of several persons who let 



•170 AN OUTCRY FROM THE 

their insurance expire, and while they neglected to 
renew it, fire broke out and destroyed the whole of 
their possessions. 

Our good names which many of us hold very dear, and 
which we would be exceedingly sorry to lose, are also in 
his hands ; but when God takes a soul in hand to humble 
him, he has only to give Satan liberty, and he will 
blacken his character, either by the men of this world 
or by false teachers. It is often by such means that 
God keeps his people in prayer without ceasing. Afflic- 
tions drive the soul to Christ and keep him there, 
which is very evident ; for the prosperity of the visible 
church in outward things, has caused her to turn aside 
from the Lord, and become the wife of another. There- 
fore, as God sees prosperity so hurtful to the souls of 
his children, he mixes adversity with their condition, 
and regulates it according to his own good pleasure. 
It is written, — '•' In the day of prosperity be joyful, 
but in the day of adversity consider : God also hath 
set the one over against the other." Eccl. vii. 14. If 
a man's ways be crooked in the sight of God, he will 
walk crookedly towards him, and take those things 
from him on which he unlawfully sets his heart. The 
hearts of God's people undoubtedly belong to Christ ; 
he, having dispossessed the devil of the heart, takes 
possession of it himself, for which reason, he will not 
divide it with Satan nor with the world. *' If any 
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
him." 

What folly is it then for the children of God to in- 
sure their property ! They can call nothing that they 
possess their own. If they insure against fire, water 
may be God's messenger, and sweep all before it. The 
falling of houses, and misfortunes in trade, have brought 



BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 171 

many to ruin ; and many other things have been God's 
messengers to do his work against a nation, a city, or 
an individual. 

If we were to insure our property against losses by 
fire, I should fear that our Most Holy Lord Christ, 
who has guarded us by night and by day for so many 
years, would take off from us the watchful eye of his 
kind Providence. Shall we doubt his love now? 
Shall we cast off his guardian care, and take a com- 
pany of men to be our surety against fire ? — men who 
cannot hold their own property, except by the Providence 
of God over them 7 '' The Lord maketh poor, and 
maketh rich : he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He 
raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the 
beggar from the dunghill." 1 Sam. ii. 7, 8. This he 
will do, and this he has done of late, by that great fire 
which happened in 1835, in the lower part of- the city, 
and which is an illustration of the truth of these re- 
marks. " Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord 
hath not done it ?" In that fire, the sureties and the 
insured both fell together in the loss of their property. 

Must the children of the Most High God cling to 
such broken reeds, that cannot preserve themselves nor 
their own possessions ? Shall they who have the an- 
gels of God to watch them by night and by day, be 
afraid to trust their property in his hands ? " The an- 
gel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear 
him, and delivereth them." Ps. xxxiv. 7. Who can 
escape when God ariseth to take hold of his sword of 
judgment or justice against the wicked? And how 
shall God's own people escape the chastisements that 
he has in reserve for them, when they sin against him? 
" If judgment first begin at us, what shall the end be 
of them that obey not the Gospel of God ?" Christ is 



172 AN OUTCRY PROM THE BROKEN WALLS OF ZION. 

the Surety of his people ; therefore, he that hateth the 
suretiship of the world, if he is Christ's, is sure. Of 
what is he sure ? Is he sure to escape the just punish- 
ment due for his frowardness, and backsliding in 
heart from Christ ? No ; but he is sure to meet with 
it in some shape or other ; and though he knows that 
God will correct him in measure, yet he is sure of the 
love of his Blessed Surety Christ, whatever losses he 
may sustain besides. 

This is all that I wrote at that time ; and, as the 
matter contained therein was of more consequence to 
me than the date of the year, or the day of the month 
in which it was written, I neither thought of the one 
nor of the other ; consequently, I did not record it. 
One thing I know — that it was after the great fire. 

May the Lord God of truth cause his truth to sink 
deep into our hearts, that we may not only know it, 
but obey it! I pray our Blessed Surety Christ, to 
make us to rejoice in hope, to be patient in tribulation, 
and to continue instant in prayer. "And the God of 
peace shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly." The 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and yours, 
with ns and ours, and with all the Israel of God, for 
ever. Amen. 

Your affectionate Mother, 

A. C. 



THE END. 



Deacidified using the = : : ~ -\^ -_ ;:ess. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxiae 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

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